Rural Canada contributes almost 30% to our GDP, yet 78% of all newcomers go into the main cities and not to the smaller communities. Therefore, we felt that there was a need to address the request made by many employers, municipal leaders and community leaders in rural Canada and northern Canada for more workers, more talent and more skills to come in through our immigration system. They felt that the best way to do that is to replicate some aspects of the Atlantic immigration program and have a rural focus. We launched the rural and northern immigration pilot program so that rural Canada can benefit from the benefits of immigration.
On February 20th, 2019. See this statement in context.