Questions mount about future of immigration programs for northern Ontario

There's a lot of uncertainty in northern Ontario for newcomers hoping to stay here and businesses that rely on international workers.

The federal government has scaled back on international student and permanent resident spots, and has yet to unveil the details of its new regional immigration program.

"There is a level of anxiety among international students," said Uphar Singh, who is studying marketing at Nipissing University in North Bay.

"I think I would like more clarity on what's going to happen with the international students who are already here."

The 26-year-old is hoping to get a work permit when he finishes his schooling next year and doesn't fault the Canadian government for cutting back on the number of newcomers being allowed in. 

However, he says many international students "spent their entire life savings"  to come to Canada and are now finding out that only 40 per cent of permanent resident spots will go to those already in the country.

"But how is that going to pan out?" Singh said. 

Derek Hanchuk, manager at Soo Foundry and Machine, says it's "scary" waiting to see what happens with the new program, after his company brought in 12 workers through the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot, which ended in August after five years.

"Sault Ste. Marie's always been a tough place to attract people to and northern Ontario in general," said Hanchuk, whose workforce of 75 builds turbines for wind farms, hydro dams, as well as working in the local steel sector.  

"Any trade position in Canada is hard to fill. So we've been able to grow our company over the last three years by using international workers."

Don Curry, an immigration consultant based in North Bay, says he is still regularly getting calls from employers looking to fill positions with international workers. 

He says he is still "very optimistic" about the new pilot program, hoping it will benefit the north as much as RNIP, which has seen thousands of newcomers settle in cities and small towns across the region. 

"Prior to that pilot, all the cities were losing population," said Curry. 

"So it's been a great turnaround for the north."

But he has been watching reports that the national "consensus has been shifting away from supporting large-scale immigration" with concerns that it's made it harder to get housing or employment for Canadian citizens in some areas. 

"What public opinion polls don't tell you is there's a lot of confusion among the public about the difference between temporary residents, permanent residents, refugees... and people lump them all together," he said. 

Charles Cirtwell, the president of the Northern Policy Institute, worries some of those national pressures could set back northern Ontario, which after being ignored by the immigration system for "a long, long time" finally saw an "uptick" in newcomers in the past five years.

"I think we're at a dangerous inflection point," he said. 

"There's a lot of questions out there on whether or not the progress that has been made in rural areas is going to be sacrificed on the alter of national immigration challenges."

Cirtwell says the old pilot program is expected to be replaced by the Rural Community Immigration Pilot and the Francophone Community Immigration Pilot.

Immigration and Citizenship Canada didn't make anyone available for an interview, but provided the following statement to CBC:

"The Rural Community Immigration Pilot is still set to launch this fall to help address labour shortages in small-and medium-sized communities by attracting and retaining newcomers who are filling priority jobs," the statement reads. 

 "We will release more information when available."