The City of Vernon is in on a new project to attract and retain a skilled workforce.
And the city hopes partners will be in as well.
Council voted unanimously to spend $240,000 over three years on a Rural Community lmmigration Pilot (RCIP) but only if the Regional District of North Okanagan (RDNO) and Community Futures North Okanagan (CFNO) are on board.
RDNO would contribute $105,000 over the three-year program, and CFNO funding would be $34,000 for the the three years.
"Attracting and retaining a skilled workforce is the most significant economic development challenge facing Vernon," said John Perrott, the city's manager of economic development and partnerships.
"Vernon's workforce participation rate is 52 per cent, meaning that only about half of Vernon residents are actively employed. Compounding this, Vernon's non-workforce population (aged 65 and older) has grown at a faster pace than the workforce population (aged 15 to 64) resulting in Vernon's workforce population trailing the provincial workforce average by seven per cent."
Perrott said Vernon's growth in population has generated additional consumer activity levels that have resulted in Vernon businesses needing to hire more workers to keep up with demand. Between 2016 and 2023, Vernon job posting volumes have more than doubled with annual totals growing from 2,593 to 5,941. Employers identified through annual Business Walks that finding employees locally, at all skill levels, had become increasingly challenging to the point of impeding their business's growth.
The new RCIP comes on the heels of the highly successful Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot program, created in 2019, which expires at the end of August. That pilot created opportunities for North Okanagan businesses to hire international workers to fill roles unable to be filled by local residents.
Vernon was one of 11 rural communities in Canada to participate in the pilot project, which was administered by CFNO.
"The RNIP provided Vernon and North Okanagan employers a streamlined, timely, consistent process to hiring international workers for their businesses," said Perrott.
CFNO funded the RNIP program with support from Pacific Canada, Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction, the Economic Trust of the Southern lnterior, and the City of Vernon.
Since it's launch in 2019, 623 candidates in Vernon have been recommended for permanent residency, who have filled high-demand roles within the community including early childhood educators, community and health care workers, hospitality, construction, and manufacturing workers. As a requirement of the application process, qualifying job offers had to start at $23 per hour which helped to ensure that those applicants would have wages suitable for meeting the cost of living within the community.
A total of 87 per cent of RNIP candidates have remained in the community, having become permanent residents of Vernon – one of the highest retention rates among the 11 RNIP communities in Canada. That's one of the reasons Perrott feels Vernon would be a great candidate for the new Rural Community Immigration Pilot, initiated by Immigration and Citizenship Canada.
RCIP looks to replicate the successes of the original RNIP program by allowing 15 selected rural communities to make local decisions and set priority sectors based on regional needs so employers can access international talent and fill roles that cannot be filled domestically.
"lt is anticipated that existing RNIP communities, like Vernon, will likely be best suited for a successful application as they will have existing administrative programs in place to ensure a smooth transition," said Perrott.
The new pilot is expected to run for three years from approximately Sept. 1 to Aug. 31, 2027 and serve businesses within the RDNO boundaries.
Community Futures staff has provided the city with an annual budget of $126,400 for the new project to cover administration costs to process approximately 200 recommendations annually for businesses located within the North Okanagan Regional District area.
ln the RNIP program period (2019 - 2024), Vernon businesses utilized 63 per cent of total recommendations processed (1,005) – a trend Perrott said is expected to continue into the new RCIP program period.
