Addressing Rural Labour Shortages through Newcomer Attraction

This project asks: How can rural communities attract, support and retain new community members to help address rural workforce gaps and strengthen rural communities?

The project has five objectives:

  1. To examine and evaluate innovative rural workforce strategies, plans and policies to address current and future labour gaps.
  2. To conduct in-depth case studies to examine the key catalysts for success and continuation of innovative rural workforce strategies.
  3. To provide insights for future policies and/or programs to support rural workforce development.
  4. To facilitate knowledge translation and transfer to key stakeholders.
  5. To deliver capacity building and skill-set development for students.

Explore the project and its findings and browse the BC findings.


In collaboration with the University of Guelph; the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs; and the Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation