On May 27, Council unanimously voted to cancel Sylvan Lake’s participation in the Rural Renewal Stream Program (RRS). The program did not meet the Town of Sylvan Lake’s goals outlined below. The program is offered through the Government of Alberta. The Town participated in the RRS Program to help employers fill vacant positions through immigration. Despite the cancellation, we are applying what we learned to future programs and services.

RRS Sylvan Lake Program goals

  • Support businesses to find employees for difficult to fill, vacant, year-round positions
  • Attract new long-term residents to the community
  • Support growth and diversity in the community

Why cancel the program?

  • Created unserviceable backlogs
    • Backlog of applications waiting for Government of Alberta approval
    • Application processing created a large workload for the Town of Sylvan Lake, with little return value
  • Did not support long-term living wage jobs
    • Most applications were for tourism/hospitality jobs, running $15.00/hour to 18.00/ hour (134 of our 188 applications)

Affordability and long-term growth

The program has created difficult situations for candidates. The province requires that candidates live in the community where they work. Our living wage is around $22.00 per hour. Candidates coming into these jobs cannot afford to live in Sylvan Lake long-term and will eventually move on to other opportunities. This does not support our goal of attracting long-term residents.

Newcomer retention is not just about being a great community. People need to be able to afford to live here and grow their families here. By supporting jobs under a living wage, we may be placing newcomers in a difficult financial position.

The program created some positive outcomes and helped us:

  • Build stronger connections with Care for Newcomers and Catholic Social Services. This helped expand our capacity to welcome newcomers in a more meaningful way
  • Facilitate stronger connections within our newcomer community through the newcomer networking initiative
  • Learn about immigration as we move forward with any future rural immigration programs

The future of immigration in Sylvan Lake

Administration is committed to welcoming and supporting newcomer integration in our community. The Town of Sylvan Lake is advocating for changes to the Rural Renewal Stream Program and will consider future opportunities to get involved. For those looking to immigrate, Government of Alberta programs include:

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