Nova Scotia attracted immigrants who are experts in healthcare, transportation, education, hospitality, and the trades to settle there in 2021, breaking yet another immigration peak.
“Nova Scotia is rapidly growing, and with planned growth comes many opportunities,” said provincial Immigration Minister Jill Balser.
“Newcomers fuel our economy, create new businesses and jobs, fill labor gaps and add to the diversity and culture in our communities. As we look ahead…we will continue to attract, welcome, and retain global talent to enrich our province and create further economic growth.”
According to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), the province welcomed 6,170 new permanent residents in the first ten months of 2021, a surge of 105.7 per cent from 3,000 in the same period the previous year and nearly 75.8 per cent more than the total immigration to Nova Scotia for all of 2020.
While final immigration figures for 2021 are not yet available, Nova Scotia immigration officials anticipate the year to end with more immigrants entering than in 2019, when the province welcomed 7,580 new permanent residents.
The Atlantic Immigration Pilot, which Ottawa has now made a permanent program, as well as the Canadian Experience, Caregiver, Skilled Trade, and Skilled Worker programs, attracted by far the largest cohort of entrants to Nova Scotia in 2021.
In the first ten months of 2021, those programs accounted for nearly half of all new permanent residents to the province or 49.5 per cent. Despite the financial troubles caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Nova Scotia welcomed another ten immigrant entrepreneurs through the Self-Employed and Start-up Business programs in the first ten months of 2021.
In 2020, Ottawa attempted to address Canada’s labour shortages by creating a new avenue to permanent residency for temporary residents through a short-term scheme that was to welcome up to 90,000 immigrants.
Before its completion on November 5, 2021, that temporary to permanent resident program, which began on May 2, had collected 84,177 applications across its six streams, three of which were just for francophones and the other three for both anglophones and francophones.
By the end of October last year, that method had already resulted in 395 new permanent residents in Nova Scotia. The number of new permanent residents in the province has continuously increased, from 3,405 in 2015 to 5,485 the following year.
With only 4,515 new permanent residents in 2017, the influx of newcomers slowed slightly but surged up again in 2018 with 5,965 new arrivals. Then, in 2019, immigration increased by about 27.1 per cent, totalling 7,580 new permanent residents.
According to TD Economics’ most recent Provincial Economic Outlook, the Nova Scotian economy would rise by 4.2 per cent by the end of 2021 and another 2.4 per cent this year.
Throughout 2015, the province has recognized 1,534 registered nurses and continuing care assistants, the two most commonly accepted foreign occupations in Nova Scotia.
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