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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