More partnerships, attracting more immigrants and teaching southern Ontario about northern Ontario.
Those are just a few of the accomplishments highlighted by the Northern Policy Institute in its annual report.
Charles Cirtwell, the president of the Institute, says they have looked at the opportunities in the north.
“(We had a) rural and northern immigration pilot this year. We also had a lot of data collection around the need for job placements in the north,” says Cirtwell, “…we’re graduating a lot of students with various skills out of our colleges and universities, but in many cases, we still continue to have great difficulty filling particular jobs.”
This year, NPI’s sixth year of operation, was a big success.
“The success of the Institute, of course, depends very much on whether or not organizations across the north use the data and information we collect. We were pretty excited to see some significant growth on the partnership side last year. We added 20 new formal and informal partnerships.”
Cirtwell says the north offers more for certain jobs than other parts of the country.
“…particularly in areas around health care, manufacturing, retail, office management, wholesale, transportation,” says Cirtwell, “all of those sectors you can find work and you can find work at a wage that is generally higher than you can secure in southern Ontario.”
Cirtwell says even in jobs that northern residents have to go away for, that provides an economic opportunity that we can take advantage of.
