BARRHEAD - County of Barrhead has temporarily paused the community's Rural Renewal Stream (RRS) program.
County of Barrhead manager Debbie Oyarzun and development and communications coordinator Adam Vanderwekken told councillors this during their Sept. 3 meeting.
The RRS enables rural communities with less than 100,000 people to attract and retain immigrants by working with local employers and settlement-providing organizations to offer employment and support services, including housing, language training, health care, and education. The stream requires that communities apply for designation through the provincial government. Designated communities have the Rural Renewal designation for two years, with the option to extend for two more.
Barrhead (town and county) has been an RRS community since November 2022. The county is the unit of authority and administers the program for the municipalities.
The program is part of the province's Alberta Advantage Immigration Program (AAIP), which helps employers recruit foreign nationals to apply for jobs. The AAIP is part of the province's effort to combat its labour shortage.
To be eligible for workers to receive workers under the program, a business needs to have at least one permanent, full-time position, not including seasonal jobs, of a minimum of 30 hours a week.
Vanderwekken said the program has been slowing down in recent months.
He added that this was especially true in August when only two prospective employers inquired about the program, neither of which applied. Similarly, only three prospective employees expressed interest in the program, with the county endorsing zero candidates or positions being filled.
"[August] was by far the slowest we've had," Vanderwekken said.
To date, Barrhead-area employers have expressed interest, with 32 signing up. Currently, there are 14 employers with open vacancies.
Over the 22 months, the RRS has been active, 186 candidates have expressed interest in coming to Barrhead, with the county endorsing 118.
Vanderwekken said 78 of the latter are temporary foreign workers (TFW) in Canada, including several in the community.
He added that 67 have started their positions, and 51 are pending nomination or arrival in Barrhead.
Oyarzun said administration decided to pause to gather more information before recommending that the municipalities renew the program for an additional year past 2025.
"Right now, we want to press pause because we are experiencing some administrative challenges," she said. "This will give us some time to dig into it and develop a recommendation for both councils, and you guys can decide whether you want to carry forward with the program."
Vanderwekken agreed, saying the two main reasons county staff wants to press the pause button are that they are still determining if the RRS meets local employers' needs.
"There is a backlog of applications waiting on the Alberta government's approval," he said, adding the province is presently processing applications they received in February.
Moreover, Vanderwekken said the province had pressed its pause button until Sept. 30, after which they will change the application process to the new "Expression of Interest" system.
"After that, candidates can submit an expression of interest and be placed on a selection pool that the Government of Alberta rank them based on several categories, after which they will invite select candidates to apply," he said. "This process will further exacerbate the already lengthy delay for employers to get new workers, and in some cases eliminate candidates from even applying for the program."
In a statement, press secretary for the Immigration and Multiculturalism ministry Neil Singh said the province was moving to the point system to address unprecedented demand across all worker immigration streams, including the Rural Renewal Stream. He reiterated the program has not been paused, saying they are still processing applications in the queue, but stopped taking new applications in July to prepare for the switch to the new system.
However, Vanderwekken said their larger concern was long-term growth and affordability.
"The vast majority of jobs in the program tend to be for low wages," he said. "If the candidates cannot afford to live in Barrhead, they will likely stay for a short time before moving on to opportunities elsewhere. We don't feel that supports our goal of attracting long-term residents to the town and County of Barrhead."
Vanderwekken also referred to the federal government's plan to lower the number of low-wage temporary foreign workers.
"The Rural Renewal Stream is not a temporary foreign worker program, but we think it will reduce the number of local employers looking to get a worker through the program while they wait for their provincial and federal paperwork from the [RRS]. Especially in the low-wage positions."
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
