‘Don’t make us pay’: Northern Ontario mayors say immigration cuts hurt their cities

As the federal government looks to drastically reduce its immigration targets, the mayors of northern Ontario's cities say they need more immigrants to sustain local economies.

As the federal government looks to drastically reduce its immigration targets over the next few years, the mayors of northern Ontario’s largest cities say they need more immigrants to sustain local economies and population.

The mayors of Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay and Sudbury are calling on Ottawa to deliver on its promise to make permanent a pilot program that resettled skilled workers in their communities, saying a one-size-fits-all approach to immigration policy doesn’t benefit northern regions.

Sault Ste. Marie Mayor Matthew Shoemaker said the now-closed rural and northern immigration pilot program allowed employers in the city to fill highly skilled positions in aircraft repair, engineering and various trades.

“It has been an enormous success,” Shoemaker said, adding that without economic immigrants such jobs would disappear from the region.

The five-year program was aimed at attracting immigrants to smaller communities across Canada, including five cities in northern Ontario, and it provided thousands of newcomers with a path to permanent residence.

In March, the federal Liberal government promised to create a permanent rural immigration program while announcing plans to launch two other pilots this fall targeting rural and francophone communities.

But months later, Ottawa said it would slash its immigration target for permanent residents and dramatically reduce the number of temporary residents in the country in order to ease the growing pressures on housing, health care and other services.

The government had targeted bringing in 500,000 new permanent residents in both 2025 and 2026. Next year’s target will instead be 395,000 new permanent residents, and that will fall to 380,000 in 2026 and 365,000 in 2027.