The Town of Westlock is planning to relaunch the Rural Renewal Stream (RRS) after pausing the program for nearly a year.
The RRS is part of the Alberta Advantage Immigration Program (AAIP), which aims to combat Alberta’s labour shortages through the hiring of new immigrants in rural Alberta communities.
The Westlock program was paused in July 2024 following concerns surrounding lack of housing for employees, the retention of candidates following their reception of permanent residency and a backlog of 1,826 applications.
The new model for the relaunch of the program aims to manage these concerns through several changes to their application system. These include a limited intake window for the first week of each month only and a maximum of 10 employer applications. There will also be a non-refundable $350 processing fee for each application, a minimum starting wage of $24.50 per hour, the limiting of endorsements for individuals with a work permit expiring no less than one year from date of application and a minimum of a 60-day job posting on Canada Job Bank and Indeed Canada.
“This is to address some concerns we've heard previously from employers where they would have a candidate come and start work and they would leave because they either couldn't find housing or the wage they were earning wasn't enough to support their expenses in the community,” said Westlock director of planning and development Danielle Pougher at the most recent council meeting on June 9.
“The idea of requiring employers to offer that living wage would be to hopefully encourage those candidates to stay and afford live in the community long-term.”
The changed program also differs from the town’s old RRS system in that it is primarily focused on skilled labour positions in trades and healthcare as opposed to entry-level positions. There was some debate amongst councillors on implementing the $24.50 per hour living wage, which would limit the types of workers moving to the community and businesses' willingness to hire workers.
“Rural renewal has been a fast-track program for many people, but to limit it to these occupations, as well as this wage requirement, is going to severely impact newcomers to our country and community who will not be able to access this at all,” said councillor David Truckey. “Unfortunately, the federal government's handling of immigration has made the situation extremely difficult for a lot of people. They're simply having the door closed on them because of over immigration. This will be a limiter; it won't widen opportunities.”
“The living wages are already widely used in the province. Most of the municipalities that have a problem with this program actively implemented living wages,” said Westlock economic development officer Davis Prizgintas. “Our vacancy rates are below 4% in this community. The other issues that arise if the living wage is not paid are the pressures that fall on our social services including the food bank.”
It remains to be seen how the changes to the RRS will impact the town economically in the coming months.
“We had several conversations about the burden this places on the municipality. The handling of immigration as a small rural municipality is out of our wheelhouse,” said Councillor Murtaza Jamaly.
“My assumption would be that the second we open this floodgate again, there will be a pile of calls, regardless of how well you advertise that we only do this in the first week. It's going to be a mountain of work.”
