‘Don’t make us pay’: Northern Ontario mayors say immigration cuts hurt their cities

TORONTO — As the federal government looks to drastically reduce its immigration targets over the next few years, the mayors of northern Ontario’s largest cities say they need more immigrants to sustain local economies and population.

The mayors of Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay and Sudbury are calling on Ottawa to deliver on its promise to make permanent a pilot program that resettled skilled workers in their communities, saying a one-size-fits-all approach to immigration policy doesn’t benefit northern regions.

Sault Ste. Marie Mayor Matthew Shoemaker said the now-closed rural and northern immigration pilot program allowed employers in the city to fill highly skilled positions in aircraft repair, engineering and various trades.

“It has been an enormous success,” Shoemaker said, adding that without economic immigrants such jobs would disappear from the region.

The five-year program was aimed at attracting immigrants to smaller communities across Canada, including five cities in northern Ontario, and it provided thousands of newcomers with a path to permanent residence.

In March, the federal Liberal government promised to create a permanent rural immigration program while announcing plans to launch two other pilots this fall targeting rural and francophone communities.

But months later, Ottawa said it would slash its immigration target for permanent residents and dramatically reduce the number of temporary residents in the country in order to ease the growing pressures on housing, health care and other services.

The government had targeted bringing in 500,000 new permanent residents in both 2025 and 2026. Next year’s target will instead be 395,000 new permanent residents, and that will fall to 380,000 in 2026 and 365,000 in 2027.

Ottawa is also aiming to reduce the number of temporary residents — which includes temporary foreign workers and international students — by 445,901 in 2025.

Shoemaker said those changes are designed to blunt the effects of high population growth in large cities, but immigration is vital to the growth of Sault Ste. Marie “because otherwise our death rate outpaces our new births,” leading to a shrinking population and municipal tax base.

“One size does not fit all,” he said of the policy change.

Shoemaker said more than 1,000 people have been resettled in the city over the last few years thanks to the rural and northern immigration pilot and those immigrants helped the local population grow for the first time in 25 years, to about 78,500 people in 2024.

“For the 25 years before 2024, our population shrunk every time it was measured,” he said. “(The program) has provided a turnaround for us in terms of population size.”

He said the federal government should recognize that the needs of northern Ontario cities are different from those in southern Ontario.

“Don’t make us pay for the affordability crisis that’s been created in southern Ontario because we can help continue to grow the population and be thriving contributors to the Canadian economy,” he said.

Thunder Bay Mayor Ken Boshcoff said he has similar concerns about the federal government’s pivot on immigration.

“We have lots of room and lots of jobs because the mining industry is really quite booming,” he said. “The community itself, both from an educational standpoint and as a regional centre, is also doing very well.”

He said Thunder Bay is working to build more housing as quickly as possible and provide adequate recreational activities to attract more immigrants and entice them to stay.

“We could use as many new immigrants as the federal government would allow us,” Boshcoff said.

Sudbury Mayor Paul Lefebvre said 1,400 skilled immigrants arrived in the city over the course of the pilot program, with some of them bringing their family members for a total of 2,700 new residents.

“We’re asking (the federal government) to reopen the program … as soon as possible because we have a lot of opportunities, a lot of jobs that are waiting to be filled,” he said. “We have housing and we’re able to accommodate and certainly welcome them in our communities.”

He said the local mining industry is looking for engineers, welders and mechanics, while the health-care and education sectors are also looking for skilled workers.

Natalie Parent, human resource manager for Pioneer Construction Inc., which is based in Sudbury and also operates in other northern Ontario cities, said the large civil engineering company has benefited from the rural and northern immigration program.

“It’s really been a game changer for our organization when it comes to some of those hard-to-fill positions because it allowed us to address some critical shortages for those roles that are essential to our operations,” she said.

“The mechanic position is like the most challenging to fill because there’s a limited pool of qualified candidates in the north.”

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada says it recognizes different communities’ needs as it works to create a permanent rural immigration program.

“We are continuing to assess how immigration can best support the needs of rural areas, which face different challenges compared to major urban centres,” spokesman Jeffrey MacDonald said in a statement.

“While we have introduced measures to manage volumes of international students and temporary workers in the years to come, we remain committed to supporting the unique economic and demographic needs of rural communities through targeted immigration pathways.”

Frédéric Boulanger, director of immigration programs and services at Collège Boréal — which provides language and employment support for newcomers across Ontario — said immigrants are willing to resettle in areas with good employment prospects.

“They’re looking for not only a job, they’re looking for a career,” he said. “They want to maximize their potential, use their skills, use their educational background, their personal background and contribute as fast as possible.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 15, 2024.

Maan Alhmidi, The Canadian Press