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By Gates Guarin

communities under 100,000 eligible to apply

Immigration program targeting labour gaps in place for Brooks and Newell County

Sep 15, 2022 | 3:37 PM

BROOKS, AB – A new program designed to help fill labour shortages is in place for our area.

The Brooks-Newell region, which includes the city of Brooks, the town of Bassano, the villages of Duchess and Rosemary and the county of Newell, is taking part in the Alberta Advantage Immigration program.

The program is designed to bring foreign workers to Canada to help address the current shortage in the workforce.

“This is one step in allowing us to fill those skill gaps that employers are having locally, allows employers to keep hours longer,” says Mitchell Iwaasa, economic development officer for the region. “We found through COVID, a lot of them were working on shorter hours and not having as much services for our community. So this allows them to fill some of those gaps.”

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Iwaasa says communities with a population under 100,000 are eligible to apply for the program. In addition to the Brooks-Newell region, the city of Grande Prairie, and the towns of Taber and Whitecourt have all applied. Iwaasa says workforce will be a large portion of the region’s economic development plan as it looks to address the labour gaps affecting markets across the country.

The process includes an endorsement from the region once employers find suitable candidates. A subsequent application to the provincial government is made and, if approved, candidates are able to be fast-tracked toward permanent residency.

Iwaasa says the Brooks-Newell region is a great area for the program due to the community’s long-standing relationship with foreign workers, especially through the JBS Canada meat plant.

“We have actually, a wide range of employers that are looking for candidates right now,” Iwaasa says. “We have everything from pharmacists to careers in the law, field machinists, and of course, JBS Canada.”

“We’re receiving a lot of interest even before we’re fully up and running,” Iwaasa adds. “As soon as we were accepted to the program, we started getting emails from around the world, and so far we’ve been able to get a number of candidates who applied through the program and we’ve been able to endorse a few, and hopefully they’re already on their way to Canada.”

Iwaasa says the region is also taking part in a rural entrepreneur stream, which allows for foreign investors to look at and potentially start businesses in Alberta.