Toronto, Ontario — A new report from Statistics Canada shows that the Maritimes are quickly becoming a gateway for immigrants looking for a future in the nation’s rapidly depleting skilled trades workforce.
While Ontario continues to lead the country in retention of new skilled tradespeople to Canada, the Atlantic provinces, and PEI in particular, are showing positive growth in attracting skilled immigrants to the East Coast.
In an examination of data collected from 2010 to 2015, it was found that while PEI has consistently ranked the lowest in retaining skilled workers five years after their arrival, that figure has been steadily rising over the past ten years, with a significant spur in retention resulting from the launch of Atlantic-based immigration initiatives.
The Atlantic Immigration Pilot Program was launched in 2017 with the aim of bolstering the skilled workforces of Newfoundland and Labrador, PEI, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
Since the launch of the program, skilled labour retention in the four Maritime provinces has skyrocketed, with rates more than tripling in Nova Scotia, from 21.5 percent in 2016 to 67.6 percent in 2019.
Prior to its 2017 entrance into the pilot program, PEI recorded an average skilled labour retention rate of 25.4 percent from 2010 to 2015. Since then, the province has seen its retention rate climb from 40 percent in 2017 to 63.5 percent in 2019.
The report compares the retention rates of Atlantic provinces involved in this pilot program with the westward provinces who are not, showing that skilled labour retention rates have largely plateaued in much of the country, following several years of sharp declines.
Saskatchewan, in particular, was hit hard by declining tradesperson retention, seeing its rate drop steadily from 78.2 percent in 2010 to 42.6 percent in 2019.
International skilled labour recruiting has become a hot topic in the Atlantic provinces, as many auto body repair facilities out east have taken to sourcing their staff from international markets in response to local labour shortages.
Recent Bodyworx Professional cover star Katherine Gordillo is one such manager who is expanding her Charlottetown shop’s scope beyond PEI in order to tap into a pool of otherwise unreached international talent.
