The theme of the fifth annual Magnetic North Conference, “Retention is the New Reality,” was prompted by recent reductions to incoming permanent and temporary residents caused by the Government of Canada’s 2025-2027 Immigration Levels Plan.
“We’ve seen a massive cut in international students but also similar clawbacks in overall immigration levels, and in provincial nominee programs,” Charles Cirtwill, president and CEO of Northern Policy Institute, told Northern Ontario Business.
Cirtwill hopes this year’s conference will generate frank conversations about problems and gaps in retention for smaller northern communities, which have been more drastically affected by the reductions than larger, southern urban centres.
“The goal is to get experts together to hear about what they’re hearing on the ground and get newcomers and employers together to talk about both the challenges they’re facing and what’s working well so other communities can learn,” Cirtwill said.
The in-person conference is being hosted by the independent think tank Northern Policy Institute and the support connection network for francophone newcomers, Réseau du Nord, at Sudbury’s Science North Dec. 3-5.
In previous years, the conference focused on attraction, settlement, and retention, as well as reconciliation and anti-racism.
The conference has aided in facilitating recent improvements to marketing, attraction, and settlement by devising the need for programs like the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (RNIP), which has brought more than 4,000 newcomers to the North, said Cirtwill.
“The next big question is ‘How do we ensure they stay’? We want to make sure we’re doing as well as any other region in terms of keeping folks here.”
Over 120 participants representing municipalities, Indigenous governments, service providers, postsecondary institutions, and economic development organizations, employers, employees, and students will have the chance to hash it out.
“We’ve heard a lot about the lack of a connection between students and employment,” Cirtwill said. “It’s not difficult for students to find summer work or occasional work, but connecting the study stream to the career path is a challenge. We’ve seen that improve and we’ll talk about how we can continue to make incremental progress.”
Keynote speaker invitees include Lena Metlege Diab, federal minister for Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), and David Piccini, Ontario’s minister of Labour, Immigration, Training, and Skills Development.
Sudbury Mayor Paul Lefebvre will speak on immigration and population growth at a pre-conference reception on Dec. 3.
“We’re excited to see how [his] vision for growth in Sudbury aligns with our vision of growth across the North,” Cirtwill said.
Featured panels include a presentation by James Franks, the economic development officer for the City of Temiskaming Shores, on the history of immigration in Northern Ontario. Nipissing University professor and IRCC analyst Dr. Natalya Brown is heading a plenary panel that will look at evidence about effective retention for RNIP participants.
New to the conference this year are the “Bear Pit Sessions,” which involve large-focus question-and-answer periods that will help employees and employers connect with community representatives and coordinators of pilot programs such as the Rural Community Immigration Pilot (RCIP).
RCIP offers permanent residence to skilled workers who want to work and settle in rural and remote communities in North Bay, Sudbury, Timmins, Sault Ste. Marie, and Thunder Bay when vacancies can’t be filled locally.
“Rather than relying on one-on-one talks, the entire group gets to discuss the problems [in Bear Pit Sessions],” Cirtwill said.
New Spotlight Sessions are designed to feature the realities of the newcomer experience through the eyes of international students, employers, and businesses who were interviewed in advance of the conference.
“[The Spotlight Sessions] will give people the opportunity to hear the voices behind the numbers,” said Cirtwill.
Over the years, the conference has given a voice to small and rural communities who feel “left out” of the immigration process due to less access to provincial and federal support. The result is programs like RCIP being tailored to support northern communities, Cirtwill said.
“We’re seeing these programs expanding and responding to what we’re hearing at these events.”
The conference has also highlighted the need for “set-aside” allocation spots from the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program earmarked specifically for Northern Ontario communities in order to fill labour shortages.
Magnetic North finds its origins in a series of events hosted in 2019 and 2020 by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce to determine local issues in rural communities.
In Thunder Bay, academic institutions and employer organizations determined the major issue impeding the growth of northwestern Ontario was the demographic shift that had led to the ongoing skills and labour shortage.
Northern Policy Institute’s initial 2020 conference laid the foundation of Magnetic North by determining the necessity of better marketing for immigration in Northern Ontario, more advantageous dispersal of immigrants throughout the North, and better supports for immigrants once they arrived.
“In 2020, we identified the fact that a lot of immigrants were going to larger centres within the province and the smaller centres weren’t picking up the scraps,” said Cirtwill. “We decided if that was our number one issue, we should come together to see what we can do to make a difference in a collective way.”
Cirtwill hopes this conference will allow a diverse blend of people to communicate together, outside of their individual “silos.”
“Whether you’re an employer, a university professor, or a teenager looking to find employment, I encourage you to come to the event,” said Cirtwill.
Ultimately, he hopes the conference will set the foundation for long-term sustained growth in the North.
“We’d like to see the North grow at the same rate as the rest of the country and have an economic mass that allows us to grow ourselves instead of relying on others.”
Registration is open until Nov. 17. Tickets are $150 for individuals or $1,000 for a table of eight.