New Brunswick’s Introduction to its New Immigration Pilot Program

On 7^th November 2022, New Brunswick province of Canada released news about introducing a new immigration pilot project – New Brunswick Critical Worker Pilot (NBCWP). The project is in collaboration with the federal government, primarily designed to address labour shortages in New Brunswick.

With a new immigration stream, the province will be able to attract skilled workers into jobs that are difficult to fill. Thus, the five-year NBCWP program is exceptional and flexible in that it won’t simply give economic immigration, yet will also ensure settlement solutions for newcomers who show up through this new venture. Also, it will allow participating workers to provide specific skills and training.

According to federal IRCC Minister Sean Fraser, “Immigration isn’t just really great for our communities, but it is also fundamental. In addition, newcomers play a critical part in Atlantic Canadian communities, and in assisting organizations with succeeding”. This inventive approach will help labours across the province to meet their particular Canadian market needs. Moreover, these participating workers will significantly profit from filling basic work opportunities along with working in a reachable community.

Along with addressing critical labour shortages, New Brunswick is worried about retaining immigrants. This pilot is an initial move toward resolving such issues. Therefore, the province has decided to choose six employers for the new pilot program (NBCWP):

• Cooke Aquaculture,
• Groupe Savoie Inc.,
• Groupe Westco,
• Imperial Manufacturing,
• J.D. Irving Ltd.,
• McCain Foods.

New Brunswick says these 6 organizations were chosen since they have shown predictable immigration hiring practices, have settlement programs for newcomers and will give hands-on preparation and language support.

As a feature of their interest, participating employers must fulfill the following requirements:

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• Have strong settlement solutions and plans for housing and transportation and world-class commitments to long-term retention of newcomers.
• Have comprehensive human resources planning for recruiting and hiring skilled international talent, coupled with on-the-job skills enhancement.
• Provide up to 200 hours of language training, as needed, to selected candidates.
• Offer guidance and support to immigrants who may wish to pursue their Canadian secondary education equivalency

The province says the five-year pilot program will be consistently reviewed and assessed so it stays receptive to immigration needs. As a result, it will deliver positive results for the province of New Brunswick.

To this, Alain Bosse, President, and COO of Groupe Savoie Inc. mentioned, “We have a collective goal in mind”. The Saint- Quentin district [is] flourishing thanks to our immigrants, and we keep on supporting and inviting them to rural New Brunswick