Northern Ontario Communities Plan to Look More Welcoming

Key Highlights

• Overview  
• Reason for the Plan
• Focus Area
• Immigrate to Rural Ontario

Communities from Ontario’s rural and northern areas came together recently to lay out the long and short-term plans to increase their population.

This also includes the 10-point action plan called “Come North”, released in January this year.

Reason for the Plan

The northern region of Ontario is facing an acute labour shortage and consists of an ageing population.

This is why over 300 people representing more than 100 companies joined for two conferences in February last year to address this issue.

In the conferences, they discussed how to make the communities look welcoming to other Canadians and immigrants.

They identified that they must work together, develop a plan and update it on an annual basis.

Focus Areas

The action plan’s main point was to become more friendly and welcoming to newcomers and current residents.

Another point was to focus on combating racism. For this, those who promote immigration and those who fight racism would need to work jointly to promote understanding with the indigenous people.

Immigrate to Rural Ontario

People interested in immigrating to the rural parts of Ontario can consider either of these two pathways:

• Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP)
• Rural and Northern Immigration Program (RNIP)

OINP allows skilled workers and international students to apply for a nomination from Ontario for permanent residence.

It also has a dedicated Regional Immigration Pilot draw that is dedicated to increasing immigration in rural areas.

RNIP is a special federal immigration program that works only with small and remote areas in Canada.

Currently, 11 rural communities participate in RNIP, out of which five are in Ontario:

• Sudbury
• Timmins
• North Bay
• Thunder Bay
• Sault Ste. Marie