The Town of Whitecourt is helping local businesses fill employment gaps by becoming a designated community for a provincial immigration program

Whitecourt was recently named a Designated Community for an immigration program through the Government of Alberta. The Alberta Advantage Immigration Program (AAIP) Rural Renewal Stream will help link newcomers to Canada to Alberta and specifically into smaller communities that are designated by the program as having jobs and support available.

Rhonda Hough, Economic Development Officer for the Town of Whitecourt, said she looks forward to seeing how the program can support Whitecourt’s business community. “A lot of the bigger cities are attracting many newcomers, and it’s often difficult to attract them to smaller communities. It’s designed to support employers who have trouble filling vacant positions they haven’t been able to fill locally.”

Hough said that the Economic Development Committee led the charge to qualify for the program. “It has to be a program led by an Economic Development organization or a community partnership. That’s how we did ours for the town of Whitecourt, by doing it through our Economic Development Committee. We made a work plan, submitted that to the Alberta government, and were approved.”

Hough said they had to demonstrate available support for newcomers locally and that positions are ready for the taking. They also had to show that there was a team prepared to work with employers to help support the project, which is where the committee comes in. She said working closely with the business community in Whitecourt was a big part of getting the designation.

“Anyone short-staffed or having trouble filling that labour gap can be part of this. Right now, we have five businesses that are on board with job opportunities. What we are doing to support them is taking their job description and putting it on our website. Then any newcomers looking to apply can directly do so with the employer right through our AAIP website link,” explained Hough.

She said it’s open to anybody. “We are encouraging businesses that are having trouble filling those positions, no matter what it might be, a skilled position or a service position, anything they are having trouble filling locally, we want to work with them. We can take the skills from newcomers that are reaching out to us and be that liaison between businesses to get those positions filled.” The town’s website details the program and highlights local employment opportunities.

Employers joining the program have requirements to uphold, including that the positions they offer must be full-time, permanent positions for at least one year at a minimum of 30 hours per week. There must also be benefits. “It’s not designed to fill part-time positions. It is for full-time positions,” said Hough.

Most of the meetings they’ve had so far have been with businesses in the service sector. “There’s a lot of gap in being able to fill those positions, and things are getting busier. This is a good program for them to utilize. When you don’t fill those positions locally in the service sector, it hurts business development. Many businesses are having trouble expanding, aren’t offering new services, or are changing their hours of employment because they don’t have enough resources or staff. This is a tool and opportunity that can support them so that those plans that might be on the shelf right now can move forward,” said Hough. She said getting the service sector, for example, running at full steam with employees is a win-win for all sectors.

Businesses interested in joining the program are encouraged to reach out to the Economic Development team at the Town of Whitecourt. “Send me an email at economicdevelopment@whitecourt.ca or give us a call. We can come out and meet you and run through the program. We are designing an information package we can drop off if they are curious and want to know more.”

To learn more, visit www.whitecourt.ca and click on the Business tab at the top of the page, followed by the Business Support Services tab. “We’ve outlined the steps of what we are doing as an Economic Development Committee for employers on our website, so I encourage them to check that out.”

Another added piece that hasn’t been confirmed yet, but that they expect to hear back from soon is the Alberta Advantage Immigration Program’s Rural Entrepreneurial Stream. “We just applied, and this one is really unique. If there’s a business in another country or a newcomer that has a business and wants to relocate to Canada, and they are looking at Whitecourt, we can sell them on Whitecourt. Through this, they could actually relocate their business to Whitecourt and apply to this program,” explained Hough.

“If they are looking at establishing a business here, or perhaps it’s a business in our community that is working on some succession planning, and maybe they are looking at selling, we can help by putting them into contact with newcomers that are interested in buying a business in our community. It helps expand the economy and helps our local businesses.”

Hough said they should hear back soon if they successfully attained this second stream through the AAIP. “I really hope we get it,” she added.

Whitecourt was the second community designated under the Rural Renewal Stream, and there are now four communities designated in the province. Hough hopes they get to add the Rural Entrepreneurial Stream to their arsenal. “It’s like a partnership between the newcomer, the community, and the employer. We are seeing more jobs than people, so this is an exciting tool that can impact our community.”