The following statement was given today in the House of Assembly by the Honourable Al Hawkins Minister of Advanced Education, Skills and Labour:

Mr. Speaker, in St. John’s yesterday I had the pleasure of participating in the third Minister’s Roundtable on Immigration; an initiative of The Way Forward.

It has been almost two years since we launched the Immigration Action Plan, a collaborative, partnership-driven plan to increase the number of newcomers to our province to 1,700 annually by 2022.

Throughout the province, we are already seeing positive results from that plan. Since January of this year, the Provincial Government has received 25 per cent more immigration applications compared to the same time period in 2017. In 2017, 547 newcomers were nominated under the Newfoundland and Labrador Provincial Nominee Program and an additional 285 newcomers under the Atlantic Immigration Pilot Program for a total of 832 individuals.

Yesterday’s roundtable brought together representatives of the business community, labour, the K-12 education system, post-secondary institutions, municipalities, community organizations and service providers. Together, we discussed potential new initiatives for year three of the immigration action plan as part of our ongoing efforts to increase newcomer attraction and retention. The input we received will inform our planning as we identify priority actions to help retain newcomers, strengthen our communities and grow the economy.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my Honourable colleagues to join me in commending the members of the Minister’s Roundtable on Immigration for their dedication to the province’s prosperity and growth.

Thank you.