Northwestern Ontario Immigration Portal Launches Global Innovations
by Scott A. Sumner
Northwestern Ontario and its 32 communities will become even more accessible to the world now.
Representatives from across the region met in Thunder Bay to launch several new innovations and content to the award-winning Northwestern Ontario Immigration Portal included the go-live of a new mobile version of the Portal in 15 languages.
“ We were the community partners for the CEDC for the project. It started almost two year ago and we launched the first part of the portal last March. Prior to that we had a nine month frantic
development stage,” said Kathy Woodbeck, Executive Director of the Thunder Bay Multicultural Association. “ This has had a great impact because 32 communities of NW Ontario came together to increase population and economic development. We have had an increase of
immigrants to Thunder Bay and it is exciting to see that growth and immigration.”
An example shown on the site was a family in Manitouwadge from Nigeria. He saw a business opportunity in Manitouwadge as a business owner of a pharmacy. After having worked in Toronto first he saw the pharmacy in Manitouwadge and was very impressed. The families moved and are thrilled to be there.
“ It could take 18 months to 2 years as a process to come to Canada. There are medical checks, police background reports, knowledge of the language, education and family that would be coming with them and what they can contribute. There are a lot of people coming to start
businesses. You can also come to professional careers,” said Woodbeck. “ We want to increase our population with our small town friendly feel and lower cost of living which is attractive. The education process can help as well. We see every walk of life; you name it with large numbers coming here. This year we will see over 600 newcomers and want to
increase it. We are busy and have met our targets very quickly.”
When we started this I felt it was one way to bring all the communities together. I really believe in NW Ontario as a whole. How can we do things collectively? How do we move into the new technology age? To me it was a chance to learn and work together,” said Rebecca Johnson, Councillor City of Thunder Bay. “ We have been able to improve the portal from a few languages to 11 and now 15. That is significant. The other thing is what do we offer when people move here. We now have a business directory of businesses they might want to buy and a career directory of jobs new to the site. There a number of business owners in NW Ontario that want to retire but the is no succession in place, so we need people to buy these businesses.”
“ People in another country need a job before they come here. What do I have to do to get that business, orchestrate it over 1 year or more? The portal is very practical for any individual anywhere in the world in his or her own language. They can see the videos of real people who have moved here. We are now working with the social networks as well.” said Johnson.
“ We have referred people to the site to give background information about our area. We have business opportunities in Marathon and they will be listed on the site as well. It will be a great tool,” said Melissa MCCuaig, Human Resources for the Town of Marathon. “ We are looking for more doctors in Marathon. Our economy had had the pulp mill shut down. Stillwater Mining is on the horizon with palladium.”
In NW Ontario live 250,000 people. The investment in the portal has been around $1 million according to Rebecca Johnson who stated. “ It has already paid back for us.”
