Last year, over 700 newcomers moved to Prince Albert, Humboldt, Waka and Rosthern. More are needed to fill the demand for labour, say businesses. (file photo/paNOW Staff)

By Susan McNeil

Labour shortage

Last decade had strong immigration to P.A. region, but more needed

Mar 27, 2023 | 4:00 PM

Over the last 10 years, almost 7,000 immigrants have moved to Prince Albert and the surrounding area, but the local business community says more are needed to satisfy the demand for labour.

Chamber of Commerce manager Patty Hughes watched the provincial budget presentation last week and told paNOW she was glad to see more money go toward newcomer services.

“It’s really an important step to help attract for the province’s labour crisis, and that’s what we’re experiencing here in Prince Albert as well,” Hughes said.

In fact, last year alone 710 new immigrants moved to Prince Albert, Humboldt, Aberdeen, Wakaw, Rosthern and Waldheim.

Hughes was happy to see an extra $5 million allotted to helping newcomers settle into Saskatchewan.

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Businesses lose money when they can’t find the staff they need, Hughes said.

“This is affecting them. It’s affecting their growth and opportunity to expand and especially in the construction industry, the opportunity for them to respond to tenders,” she explained.

The labour shortage in skilled trades attached to construction has been noted in the new budget with a 68 per cent increase to the Apprenticeship Training Allowance for students living away from home while taking training.

Another $4 million will pay for more training seats in mainly construction-related trades.

One of the sectors most in need is health so the province has created a recruitment agency and is actively looking for registered nurses in the Philippines to move here.

The number of nurses needed in Prince Albert will grow again once the expansion to the Victoria Hospital is complete, a change that see the number of beds increase from 173 to 242.

Completing the expanded NICU last year added over 30 health care staff to the roster. One of the planned changes is to streamline the recognition of international credentials in regulated healthcare jobs.

Another $300,000 was put toward reducing red tape for international workers in other areas as well, if they are in regulated professions.

The plan is to make sure the regulatory bodies are complying with timelines for issuing licenses and other requirements.

The Saskatchewan Ministry of Immigration and Career Training says that 6,734 new immigrants have moved into the region.

This year, the province’s immigrant nominee program will have a record number of people go through it with 7,250 nominations. When their families are counted, about 18,000 newcomers are expected to move to the province by the end of the year.

Last week’s budget announcement did not include an increase in taxes, a fact that also makes Hughes happy.

Businesses are starting to come through the pandemic and adding to their financial burden would have been an unnecessary hardship.

“Overall, what’s really important is knowing that we have new tax increases and no new taxes,” she said.

She would have liked to see the small business tax remain at zero per cent for one more year however, as the extra money would boost their post-pandemic recovery.

The province says that it plans to increase the provincial population to 1.4 million by 2030 and include 100,000 new jobs.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com