It's been just over a year since a federal immigration program launched in the Altona-Rhineland area and things are off to a good start, despite curve balls thrown out by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Launched November 1, 2019, the three-year Rural and Northern Immigration pilot program creates a path to permanent residence for skilled foreign workers who want to live in the community while at the same time filling job gaps in rural and northern areas of the country.

Stephanie Harris is the economic development officer with S.E.E.D., the local economic development organization that is driving the program. S.E.E.D uses a web site where local employers can advertise job openings and workers from around the world can apply for those jobs.

According to Harris, their office continues to receive inquiries from local businesses interested in hiring workers.

"We've even received inquiries from new businesses who are looking to relocate to the Altona-Rhineland area so that they are able to strengthen their capacity to develop and retain a skilled workforce," she added.

Additionally, there are eight postings currently listed on the web site which Harris says represents 40 open positions available in the community. Since S.E.E.D launched the RNIP program a year ago, over 70 jobs have been posted in total. She notes, over 27,000 people have also created online profiles and are looking to work in the community.

As well, the pilot has provided a total of 11 community recommendations to applicants with job offers during its first year. The recommendations mean those applicants will be coming to the community. So far, four applicants have arrived and are working and living in the Altona-Rhineland area.

"It's very exciting. I know there have been a couple of setbacks due to COVID-19, but I think we're really really happy with the progress we've been making so far," added Harris.

For example, she says Visa centres and language or education testing centres have either closed due to the pandemic, or it's been difficult getting appointments in some countries. Harris explains that has made it harder for applicants to receive all of the documentation they require in order to immigrate to Canada. "We've also seen some businesses that prefer to have in-person interviews with applicants who also had to come up with alternative processes for hiring foreign nationals. That has slowed down the number of job offers being provided," she added.

And while the 11 total job recommendations is well below the goal of 100 that was set out by the federal government at the start, Harris says they have three years to provide more recommendations as Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) plans to reset the allocation process so that all communities will have until the end of December to continue to use their initial 100 recommendations.

Despite this challenge, Harris says officials are pleased with the numbers they are seeing come out of the pilot.

"I call it slow-and-steady...I think we've been really lucky given some other communities have had to significantly slow down or halt the program because too many employers have had to let go of employees, and so we're really lucky to not see that happening here," she added.

Heading into year two of the pilot, Harris says IRCC is asking participating communities to examine the anticipated labour market needs in 2021, the demand for the program among local employers, the impacts of COVID-19 including travel restrictions, and the community's capacity to review candidate applications and ability to meet its roles and responsibilities in welcoming and settling newcomers.

"Right now we are taking all of those different factors in to account and we will be meeting with IRCC later this month to determine our allocation for next year," she said.