Cape Breton Welcome Network Unveils New Immigration Strategies

PORT HOOD - A new strategy designed to attract and retain newcomers to all corners of Cape Breton is using every tool in its arsenal to provide newcomers with the economic, cultural and community components they need to see the island as a long-term, and possibly permanent, living arrangement. 

The second annual year-end panel discussion on immigration and settlement issues for the Telile Community Television series Roundtable featured three members of the Cape Breton Partnership who are working together and individually to increase immigration to the island and reverse a downward population trend that has plagued Cape Breton for decades.

Dani Mombourquette, the partnership's Immigration Engagement Coordinator, noted that while the Russian invasion of Ukraine has sparked an influx of refugees and relocations from the latter country this year, the bulk of those wishing to take up residence in Cape Breton still come from such tradition regions as Africa and Asia, with the United Kingdom also coming on strong in recent months.  

While much of the immigration upsurge in Cape Breton is mainly concentrated in the Sydney area due to aggressive recruiting by Cape Breton University (CBU) and the soon-to-be-relocated Marconi Campus of the Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC), the coordinator of the CBP's Cape Breton Connector Program, Katie Jamieson, is seeing increased interest in rural communities from those looking to relocate to Nova Scotia. 

"The university students love rural Cape Breton," Jamieson enthused from her office in Port Hood. "They really love it and they really want to be here...It's where they want to put down roots, further their careers and raise their families."

The partnership is also seeing continued success in the Cape Breton Welcome Network initiative, launched in mid-2021 and now located in several communities around Cape Breton, including Port Hawkesbury, Louisdale, Isle Madame, and St. Peter's-River Bourgeois. Welcome Network coordinator Jessica Fogarty noted that her predecessor in the position, Norma Jean MacPhee, is now reaching out to newcomers in an oral tradition that has defined Cape Breton's culture for many years - specifically, as a storyteller. 

"Norma Jean wants to hear their stories - how did they come to move to Cape Breton Island, what brought them here, what made them want to stay, and what are their new ambitions for their new life and their new community," Fogarty explained. "And when she's finished compiling and editing her first series of the stories, she's going to be releasing a podcast."

Also on this week's Roundtable: Two recent items from Richmond Municipal Council's December 12 Committee of the Whole meeting, including a presentation by Johnstown Community Development Cooperative chair Rita Campbell about a proposal to develop walking trails near land reclaimed from a former limestone quarry operation in Irish Cove (34:33), and a council discussion about SaltWire Media's decision to end daily delivery of the Cape Breton Post and the Chronicle-Herald to rural communities in regions such as Richmond County and Port Hawkesbury (51:08).