Eli J. Ridder/CHAT News

By Eli J. Ridder

CITY HALL

Medicine Hat opts out of Alberta’s rural immigration jobs program

Feb 18, 2025 | 6:56 PM

The City of Medicine Hat on Tuesday put on pause its participation in a key provincial immigration program after recent federal policy shifts.

Council voted unanimously to suspend Rural Renewal Stream application intake with the intention of reviewing its status in January 2026, approving a staff recommendation.

Medicine Hat runs the program for the region through Southeast Alberta Municipal Immigration that includes Cypress County, Redcliff and Bow Island — so the suspension impacts those municipalities as well.

Recent immigration policy changes by the Alberta and federal governments have led to a decrease in the program’s immigrant worker allocation.

In 2025, the federal government reduced Alberta’s allocation by 5,067 to a total of 4,875 for all eight provincial worker pathway streams in Alberta, including the rural initiative.

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Alberta has a backlog of 4,560 applications to be processed. This means a maximum of 315 in the expression of interest pool of 46,245 candidates will be given an opportunity to apply in 2025.

The Southeast Alberta Municipal Immigration as of Feb. 2 has issued 92 candidate endorsement letters. Of the 92 letters, 21 applications have been submitted for processing with three receiving their provincial nomination.

Medicine Hat is not alone. The Town of Taber also cancelled its rural renewal program participation and staff say nearly a dozen other municipalities have also opted out.

This is a developing story. More details to follow.