WESTLOCK — A year after the Town of Westlock became a designated community for immigrant workers under the province’s Rural Renewal Program, businesses have shared feedback on the program’s successes, challenges and impacts in the community so far.
The program provides rural communities the opportunity to attract and retain newcomers and support local economic development needs through the recruitment of foreign nationals to live, work and settle in their communities, connecting employers in the local business community to qualified potential employees and serving as the conduit between employers and candidates.
The town first applied to the program in February 2023, following requests from the local business community and was approved at the end of March last year. The town’s designation under the program is in effect until March 29, 2026, with the option to extend the designation by two more years if agreed upon between the province and the town.
Director of Planning and Development Danielle Pougher, presented a one-year progress report on the program, to councillors at the March 11 regular council meeting.
The program has been well received by both employers and potential candidates, she said, sharing some of the program’s statistics, as of Feb. 29.
Current statistics include a total of 32 participating employers to date, with 28 joining in 2023 and four in 2024, noted Pougher.
"I will note that seven of those employers are no longer accepting applications … this is either due to them finding the employees they needed or being unable to handle the amount of inquiries coming in from candidates,” explained Pougher.
While a total of 116 candidate endorsement letters have been issued with 68 in country applications and 48 out of country applications, broken down that’s 82 in 2023 and 34 so far in 2024.
“Our economic development officer has been increasingly busy over the past year handling inquiries from both candidates and employers as well as processing the sheer number of employer and endorsement applications that have come in,” Pougher added, noting to date, the additional workload has been handled by existing staff but it has required a substantial amount of staff time and more than anticipated.
As part of the review, administration conducted interviews with all participating employers in January, she said adding they asked employers about their experience and satisfaction with the program.
“They reported satisfaction with the way the program was running and appreciated the town taking the steps to be a designated community and assisting them with their employee needs,” said Pougher. “They felt the process with the town was simple and endorsement letters were provided quickly.”
Local businesses also reported some challenges they faced with the program, that included handling the volume of emails and phone calls, as well as challenges with language and cultural barriers. In addition, there were “fears that once the employees receive their permanent resident card they will leave the community,” noted Pougher, pointing out they may relocate to bigger cities.
Administration’s experience with the program has also been challenging due to the higher and anticipated response, high inquiry volumes and lack of guidance and messaging about the program from the province, noted Pougher.
A group of participating municipalities has been meeting regularly to discuss their experiences, share process improvements and to discuss emerging issues, as a way providing peer to peer guidance throughout the program.
“There is also a backlog of processing candidate applications at the provincial level, with out of country candidates taking approximately nine months to one year (to complete) once endorsement letters are issued by the town,” she said, noting that in response to the backlog, some participating municipalities have either stopped accepting applications or are limiting them to in country applicants only and she informed councillors that the town has not placed any similar restrictions on its candidate applications.
However, as of January, Pougher said the town has placed a restriction on the participating employers in the program.
“There’s a new requirement to have them (hold) a Town of Westlock business licence for a minimum of six months and this is to ensure the validity of those participating employers, as well as provide them ample time to hire local applicants before entering the program.”
