CALEB NICKERSON

CAMPBELL’S BAY

Nov. 15, 2019

On Friday morning, elected officials and bureaucrats from a variety of organizations gathered at the RA Hall in Campbell’s Bay for a . . .

presentation on services available for local businesses. 

Representative from the MRC Economic Development office, SADC Pontiac, Investissement Quebec and Immigration Quebec were present, as well as several other provincial organizations. The goal of the meeting, explained MRC Economic Development Director Danielle Newman, was to bring stakeholders together to find solutions.

“It was a collaboration, it was actually the Ministry of Immigration that approached us to help them with the coordination, so they were really the lead, but we helped to support, by finding the location … it was a partnership between the two organizations,” she said. “It’s a mixture, we tried to target businesses, anybody that’s having a hard time recruiting and might be interested in the different services offered by the MRC, SADC and provincial government to support them.”

Both Newman and SADC Pontiac Director Rhonda Perry gave an overview of the role of their agencies, as contact points for local enterprises seeking government assistance for things like finding workers or applying for grant funding. 

Then, the representatives from the Ministry of Immigration, Investissment Quebec and Emploi Quebec spoke about the ways they can help local businesses. One program that generated a lot of discussion from the group was the immigration ministry’s newly implemented Arrima program, which seeks to match skilled immigrants with employers. 

“My understanding is that locally we have a problem in many enterprises finding and retaining qualified workers,” Newman said following the meeting. “During the session there were a lot of questions about that program in particular. To me, that signals there are businesses here that are considering looking outside of the Pontiac to look to bring people here to fill jobs. Hopefully that is a service that can help our businesses out.”

She said there are a few different reasons that make it difficult to attract workers to the region and retain them. 

“I personally think that it is a challenge, we certainly compete with Ontario for qualified people,” she said. “We also compete with the federal and provincial government in Gatineau and Ottawa. There’s a lot of quality jobs there and that’s a challenge as well.”

Newman said that she hopes to host similar events in the future to ensure that local enterprises are taking full advantage of the programs that the province offers, and stressed that her office and the SADC are willing to help in any way they can.