Regions respond to great demand for Canada’s new rural pathway to permanent residence

Canada’s new rural pathway to permanent residence has been met with incredible demand by employers and foreign nationals in participating regions.

Local economic development organizations participating in the Rural Community Immigration Pilot (RCIP) have responded with measures such as tightening eligibility criteria for employers and/or imposing caps or moratoria on intake.

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Regions making changes to address excess demand include North Okanagan-Shuswap, Claresholm, and Peace Liard.

The table below summarizes major changes as of the time of writing.

RCIP community	Update
North Okanagan-Shuswap	No longer accepting applications for designation from fast food or gas station employers.
Peace Liard	Pause on employer designations until November.
Claresholm	No longer accepting employer designation applications from fast food employers.
Thunder Bay	Pause on accepting recommendation applications for the Sales and Service sector during August.
North Bay	Cap on the number of applications being processed from each Designated Employer per year.
Sault Ste. Marie	- No longer accepting designation requests for dine-in restaurants. - No longer accepting designation requests for employers hiring. security supervisors

The RCIP is an employer-driven pathway to permanent residence in Canada. To be eligible, a foreign national must have a job offer from a designated employer within the community, and the job offer must be endorsed by the local economic development organization.

How are communities dealing with demand?

North Okanagan-Shuswap

The North Okanagan-Shuswap RCIP saw great demand in its first intake, receiving hundreds of applications beyond its capacity. In response, it canceled the July 17 intake to address the backlog.

There are three more intake windows scheduled for the remainder of 2025.

The community is also no longer accepting applications from Fast Food (NAIC 722512) and Gas Stations (NAIC 4471) employers due to “overwhelming demand and a limited number of recommendations.”

Peace Liard

Peace Liard, also in British Columbia, reached its capacity for employer designation applications in July. The intake for employer designations will resume in November 2025.

The region has also been seeing immense demand during its candidate intake. During the first RCIP candidate intake on August 1, Peace Liard received the maximum number of applications in under 10 minutes.

Claresholm

Claresholm, a community in southern Alberta, has announced that it will no longer be accepting or approving employer designation applications from employers in the fast food subsector.

This update was made effective July 24, 2025, and is currently in place at the time of writing.

Thunder Bay

Thunder Bay, the largest city in northwestern Ontario, has paused recommendation applications in the Sales and Service sector for the month of August.

The Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission plans to reassess before informing the public whether it will open for the month of September.

North Bay

North Bay in Ontario, which includes the District of Nipissing, District of Parry Sound, and the Town of Latchford, is placing a cap on the number of applications it will process from each designated employer each year.

It has not revealed how many applications from a designated employer will be processed.

Sault Ste. Marie

The community of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, has reached its cap for dine-in restaurants, and will no longer be designating any requests from dine-in employers submitted after May 8.

The Sault has also reached its cap of designating employers that are hiring security supervisors as of June 3.

What is the RCIP?

The RCIP is an employer-led immigration program that allows regional economic development organizations to recommend foreign nationals for permanent residence based on local labour needs.

There are 14 communities in total participating in the RCIP.

Designated employers in each community can offer qualifying jobs to eligible candidates, who must then apply for a community recommendation.

Once endorsed, a candidate can submit their permanent residence application to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). They may also be eligible for a temporary work permit while their PR application is being processed.

What are immigration pilots?

Immigration pilot programs are temporary pathways to permanent residence. They are run by the federal government, and typically run for up to five years before expiring.

Successful pilots can lead to the development of permanent programs—the Atlantic Immigration Program came out of a successful pilot.

As pilots are small programs, it is common for them to see far more demand than available spots each year.

For example, the Home Care Worker pilots which launched this year hit their application caps within hours of opening on March 31.

The federal government generally designs pilots to address specific labour market needs that are not being addressed by existing immigration programs.

Assess your eligibility for the RCIP