WESTLOCK — The Town of Westlock is joining other rural communities in the province and is pausing intake and processing of applications under the Rural Renewal Stream (RRS) effective July 1 – Aug 31.
The pause will better accommodate town staff and allow them to focus on other areas of priority over the summer, while also giving the province time to catch up with the existing application pool.
The decision was discussed at the Town of Westlock’s regular council meeting July 8, where councillors approved to temporarily pause the program for eight weeks.
The Alberta Advantage Immigration Program (AAIP) - Rural Renewal Stream is part of the province's effort to combat Alberta’s labour shortage. The RRS facilitates the attraction and retention of newcomers to rural Alberta through community-driven initiatives that address local economic development needs and fosters community growth. It helps employers in rural communities recruit foreign nationals, encouraging them to live, work, and settle within rural areas.
The Town of Westlock became a designated community under the program in March 2023.
“It’s been an overwhelming success, having matched quite a significant number of employees with employers in town in 2023 and in 2024,” said CAO Simone Wiley, noting some minor difficulties. “We are finding some administrative challenges in capacity and time to do those things and the province is finding those issues as well, and the capacity to be able to approve those endorsement letters in timely fashion,” she added. “So administration is looking for council to put a pause on the program in town.”
The provincial government recently decided to limit applications to the Rural Renewal Stream initiative, as there is a backlog in processing applications by the AAIP. As of May 29, the Rural Renewal Stream has 1,826 unprocessed applications and those currently being assessed, were received on or after December 30, 2023.
They have also received 9,750 nominations to date for 2024, for which 971 nominations have been issued with a total of 1,900 nominations allocated for the year.
While local businesses have been satisfied with the Town of Westlock’s program delivery, there have been difficulties in managing it, for both the town and participating employers.
At the meeting, director of planning and development Danielle Pougher noted some feedback from businesses participating in the program, that administration considered for the pause.
“Our economic development officer did do a survey and then conversations with all of the participating employers under the program, to see if they would be ok with the pause, as well as just check in on what current issues they were facing,” explained Pougher, noting some of the main issues they identified from those conversations, including a lack of available housing in the community for employees, frequency and number of calls from interested candidates at all times of the day, candidates making in person visits to participating employers and concern over retention of candidates once they have received their permanent residency through the program.
Pougher also shared some local statistics from the program, including a total of 43 participating employers in town, with 13 no longer accepting applications and eight unable to utilize the program again until 2025 due to reaching their 25 per cent candidate allocation. Three businesses have been approved as participating employers but have not yet submitted candidate applications due to lack of housing for their employees, and one business asked to be removed from the program.
“We’re also hearing from the provincial side of the program that processing applications remains backlogged,” said Pougher. “We’ve also received communication that it’s likely those backlogs will continue to increase as they have introduced quotas on the number of applications they will process per month, rather than do continuous processing.”
With files from Chantel Downes
