LAKELAND - Communities in Lakeland are finding success with the Rural Renewal Stream, helping employers fill positions that were hard to fill, and simultaneously helping newcomers to Canada gain permanent residency.
“The program has surpassed our expectations in terms of the uptake from businesses in the Town,” said Town of Bonnyville Mayor Elisa Brosseau.
“It's a program designed to stimulate growth in rural Alberta focused on rural communities to fill hard-to-find positions or hard-to-fill positions,” explained Economic Development Officer Mark Laver.
Laver says the benefit to newcomers is two-fold, with the main benefit being gaining employment. But after two years, participants in the program can also gain permanent residency.
The program is a 10-step process for newcomers, starting with local employers' posting vacant work opportunities. Once the employer applies for the Letter of Endorsement on behalf of the successful candidate, the candidate applies to the Alberta Advantage Immigration Program with the Government of Alberta.
Afterwards, the candidate applies for immigration with the Government of Canada.
Since the program’s inception in Bonnyville, there have been 46 work endorsement letters, more than 100 job postings, 26 businesses participating, and a dozen more businesses expressing interest.
“There are businesses out there that are closed at night when they want to be open, or they're short staffed during the daytime when they want to be open. So, it allows them to actually have a workforce,” says Laver.
The program may also bring benefits to the region by increasing the population of rural Alberta, which is generally seeing declines.
RRS in St. Paul
The RRS program also came up during the Jan. 8 Town of St. Paul council meeting.
Coun. Nathan Taylor offered an update on the program, stating work is being done to set parameters around how many employees local employers can bring in through the program.
Locally, a business that has up to 10 employees total can use the RRS for up to three positions, for example. Taylor also noted that mandatory checks to ensure standards are being met at places of employment are being done.
Coun. Ron Boisvert asked how successful the program has been in the area, with Taylor stating there have been close to 55 placements made through the RRS.
And while the program has been popular, those involved are also being cautious to ensure that part-time positions still exist for teenagers entering the workforce.
Coun. Sid Sood brought up concerns he’s heard around timelines for approval, and communication when an application is denied.
Sood noted that timelines regarding hearing back from the program have been a concern he has heard personally, which can result in potential employers leaving the area if they are stuck waiting.
CAO Steven Jeffery noted that those involved with the program, which includes the St. Paul Elk Point Economic Development Alliance (STEP), are working through the issues “as they go,” since it is still a relatively new program.
It was also noted that about 70 to 80 per cent of the work STEP is doing right now relates to RRS. Portage College is also involved with newcomer support, which is a requirement of the program.
While working through the program has sometimes “been a challenge,” according to Taylor, businesses do feel it has helped them retain employees. He said he would also rather see employees spread out throughout different employers in the community, instead of several RRS positions existing at just a few places of employment.
Ultimately, the goal is to bring newcomers to the area, and speed them through the permanent residency program, according to Taylor.
Town of St. Paul Mayor Maureen Miller noted that for local businesses to thrive, they need employees.
Popular in Cold Lake
In Cold Lake the program has also been popular. On Dec. 18, the City of Cold Lake released information stating there had been 113 worker endorsement letters sent out since the municipality became part of the program in May 2023.
There have been 220 job postings and 121 approved workplace applications, according to information from the City of Cold Lake.
“I know our team has been working very hard at making sure the applications are being looked at as quickly as possible, so thankfully we haven’t hit that kind of backlog yet,” said Mayor Craig Copeland, at the time.
The RRS program has existed for nearly two years. The first communities were brought on board in May of 2022.
