By Mata Press Service

Rural communities across British Columbia are calling on Ottawa and Victoria to give them more say and control over how newcomers are brought in to support their local economies.

At the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) annual convention in Victoria this week, delegates have submitted a resolution urging the federal and provincial governments to develop a rural-focused immigration policy that prioritizes the needs of small towns, businesses, and post-secondary institutions.

The resolution submitted by the City of Nelson and endorsed by the Association of Kootenay and Boundary Local Governments comes as demand for workers in sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, and hospitality intensifies. At the same time, federal measures, including sharp reductions to international student permits, have disrupted the flow of skilled labour to rural regions.

This call for action follows the launch of the Rural Community Immigration Pilot (RCIP), a federal program announced in January 2025 to help smaller communities attract and retain newcomers with skills matched to local economic needs.

Fourteen communities across Canada were selected for the pilot, including three in BC: West Kootenay, North Okanagan-Shuswap, and Peace Liard.

Under RCIP, each participating community is represented by a local economic development organization. These organizations identify critical labour gaps and work directly with employers to find suitable candidates. Once a candidate is approved, the organization issues a recommendation to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), which processes the application for permanent residency.

Employers who want to hire through RCIP must first apply to become designated employers.

Once designated, employers can hire qualified foreign workers, whether they are overseas or already in Canada on a temporary visa. Candidates must meet minimum language and education requirements, have relevant work experience, and be offered full-time, non-seasonal, permanent jobs.

To speed up workforce integration, candidates can initially come to Canada on temporary work permits while their permanent residency applications are being processed. Their spouses are also eligible for open work permits, allowing them to work for any employer in the same community

The RCIP has seen immense demand since its launch. In Peace Liard, for example, the first candidate intake reached capacity in under 10 minutes. In North Okanagan-Shuswap, hundreds of applications flooded in, forcing officials to cancel a scheduled July intake and tighten eligibility rules.

This overwhelming response has highlighted both the need for such a program and its limitations, fueling calls from BC municipalities for more local decision-making power to ensure the program serves the unique challenges of rural communities.

Another immigration-related resolution at the UBCM highlighted concerns about federal cuts to settlement services. As of April 1, 2025, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) reduced or discontinued funding to organizations that help immigrants and refugees integrate into BC communities.

Submitted by the City of Richmond, the resolution calls on the provincial government to push Ottawa to immediately reinstate federal funding for immigrant and refugee settlement programs that were cut.

The cuts were made in response to planned reductions in immigration levels over the next three years and have already had a major impact on service providers across BC. These programs are essential for helping the province’s 200,000 recent immigrants integrate socially and economically.

The resolution also urges the federal government to launch a consultation process with provincial and local governments, service providers, and newcomers to create a long-term, stable funding model. The goal is to ensure continued access to settlement services regardless of future changes to immigration targets.

The  Asian Pacific Post reported in January that the cuts have already started to ripple through communities across BC, shutting down or scaling back long-running programs that have helped thousands of newcomers integrate into Canadian society.

Among those impacted was the Decoda Literacy Solutions, which ran the Immigrant Parents as Literacy Supporters (IPALS) program. For over a decade, IPALS has operated in 19 BC communities, giving newcomer parents and caregivers vital language and literacy skills to help their young children succeed in school.

Vancouver Community College’s Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) program — the largest of its kind in Western Canada — is also being defunded. It will lose all federal funding, impacting more than 800 students and resulting in layoffs for 30 staff members.

Remote regions have not been spared either. In Prince Rupert, the Hecate Strait Employment Development Society — the only group providing settlement services in the community — lost all of its federal funding.

More than 20 BC organizations have been completely defunded, while others have seen their budgets slashed by 15 to 75 percent. Similar reductions are hitting provinces like Alberta and Manitoba.

The funding cuts are tied to Ottawa’s October 2024 plan to dramatically reduce the number of non-permanent residents in Canada by 900,000 over two years, following an unprecedented population surge in 2023 and 2024 that strained housing, infrastructure, and public services. IRCC said settlement service resources are being scaled back to match the lower number of expected newcomers, though $155.6 million has been allocated to British Columbia for 2024 and 2025.

The loss of these services has sparked deep concern among municipal leaders attending the UBCM, who warn that cutting settlement programs while communities are also grappling with workforce shortages will hinder both economic growth and social cohesion.

Meanwhile, the advocacy behind a   2022 UBCM resolution which called on the province to end its immigration detention agreement with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and stop holding immigration detainees in BC jails, is paying off.

This month, Ontario became the last province to cut ties with CBSA for this purpose, marking a historic victory for migrant and refugee rights. For the first time, no immigration detainees are being held in provincial correctional facilities anywhere in Canada.

British Columbia was the first province to take action, setting an example that rippled across the country. Advocacy groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International Canada credited BC痴 leadership and grassroots campaigns such as #WelcomeToCanada, which mobilized thousands of Canadians, including lawyers, healthcare workers, and faith leaders, to push for change.