Lack of Canadian visa holders and ageing population threatens Atlantic region
November 27 2009 by Liam Clifford
Rural part of Canada has a lack of Canadian visa applications
A new report by the C.D. Howe Institute says that an ageing
workforce and a lack of immigration both pose a threat to the future of the
Atlantic region of Canada.
The report, ‘Stress Test: Demographic
Pressures and Policy Options in Atlantic Canada’ says it will take “courage and
imaginative approaches” to ride the storm that could arise if the region is not
able to attract more people who move to Canada from abroad and take up Canadian Visas.
Although the
small-town nature of the place is attractive to tourists, people don’t
necessarily want to live there. The fact that 8.3 per cent of the population is
rural, compared to just 2.6 per cent in most of the rest of Canada, also
discourages people from settling in the area.
The report states, “the
scarcity of population-attracting large urban centres in the region is a
sobering fact for those hoping to address Atlantic Canada's demographic
pressures through large inward flows of migrants.”
The report says the
workforce could be shrinking from next year, indicating that people who want to
move to the Atlantic region of Canada to work are unlikely to have problems in
gaining their Canadian work visas and will be welcomed wholeheartedly by the
local communities.
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