Managing immigration - Business Buzz Session

Population Government gathers with business community to help improve process of retaining foreign skilled workers and their families

Brett Bundale
Telegraph-Journal

A top cabinet minister responsible for growing the province's population plans to meet with his federal counterpart in Ottawa to improve immigration to New Brunswick.

Victor Boudreau, the minister responsible for the province's population growth secretariat, said Wednesday the immigration process for skilled workers and their families must be streamlined in order to attract and retain newcomers.

"There are certainly barriers to immigration that exist at the federal level despite the provincial nominee program," he said referring to the special agreement with the Canadian government that allows the province to select immigrants to meet specific economic and labour market needs. Immigration policy is generally under federal jurisdiction.

"We need to speed up the process and also look at re-uniting families in order to improve retention," Boudreau said during an interview after a session on the benefits of immigration organized by Enterprise Fredericton at the University of New Brunswick's Wu Conference Centre.

"Right now the retention rate of newcomers in the province is only about 60 per cent and we'd like that to increase that to 80 per cent."

Boudreau, also minister of Business New Brunswick, has said he is working on an agreement with the federal government that would give the province greater control over francophone immigration.

Boudreau said the goal of the agreement is to ensure the province's traditional linguistic make-up (roughly one-third French, two-thirds English) is maintained.

Madhu Verma, chair of the Asian Heritage Society of New Brunswick, said more needs to be done to support newcomers once they arrive in the province.

"The government can't wash their hands of immigrants as soon as they get a job here," she said. "There needs to be support like language training and business and social networks."

Verma, who works with immigrants from Asia, said many newcomers arrive in the province without any family or friends.

"If the government wants to improve retention they should facilitate visitors' visas for the families and friends of immigrants," she said.

The Fredericton Chamber of Commerce has developed a pilot project in response to these concerns called the Business Immigrant Mentorship Program, which has received $75,000 in funding from the population growth secretariat.

The mentors, experienced business leaders from across the region, will meet with immigrants interested in learning more about business for about six hours a month for a four month period.

"It's an opportunity to share business experience, develop business networks and address how immigrant investors can better identify business opportunities," said Anthony Knight, chief executive of the chamber. "The program will help integrate newcomers into the community here by linking them with business savvy New Brunswickers."

More than 20 Canadian business people and 15 immigrants have volunteered to participate in the program so far.

A second cohort is planned for January and will target entrepreneurs with a genuine interest in establishing business in the Fredericton area. Doug Motty, the chief executive of Enterprise Fredericton, said newcomers from different cultural backgrounds need more resources to help them integrate and overcome challenges.

"If we really want to boost New Brunswick's population and remove the barriers to business for newcomers we need to ensure the proper support is in place," he said.