Canada's labour crunch has it facing one of the most seriousshortages of skilled workers in the industrial world. It's no secret that the Canadian government is working especially hard to attract an immigrant workforce to supplement its aging homegrown labour pool, precariously low birth rate, and booming economy. In fact, Canada welcomes more immigrants per capita than any other immigrant-receiving nation.

"More and more, the role of immigration is important," Richard Barnabe, deputy chief statistician for Statistics Canada says. "According to our projections, growth will depend solely on the contribution of immigration by about 2015-2017.

However, while metropolitan areas such as Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver (MTV) are benefiting from the current immigration paradigm, rural areas and western provinces, such as Manitoba and Alberta, are struggling to convince people that there is a pleasant alternative to living in the MTV triumvirate.

For example; the York Region, a suburb of Toronto, Ontario, has seen its population swell dramatically in recent years due to immigration and there is no sign of abatement. In fact, the Region is expected to grow from the current 923,000 to 1.4 million residents by 2026, yet federal and provincial funding for settlement services hasn't kept pace with the city, and does not adequately reflect the municipal reality.

In contrast, the Town of Rainy River, Ontario, known as the "Gateway to Northwestern Ontario", is struggling to convince newcomers to migrate to the pocket-sized community. The town has gone as far as launching an independent study on immigration in the district with the hope to attract new immigrants to the area.

The Province of Alberta is also predicting a shortfall of as many as 100,000 workers over the next 10 years. Statistics Canada (StatsCan) predicts a massive labour shortage affecting Western Canada’s Oil and Gas industry. "If Canada is to succeed in the global economy, we must ensure that the whole country has a capable workforce," RBC Financial Group chief executive Gordon Nixon explains.

In New Brunswick, the provincial government has to work harder to attract more immigrants to the province as the population continues to decline, says Doug Motty, the executive director of Enterprise Fredericton. "It's declining in areas that we can least afford it and that's in our young people". Enterprise Fredericton (New Brunswick), projects that by 2011, almost all growth in Canada's labour supply will have to come from foreign skilled workers.

"It's a competitive environment for the kinds of skilled people that our businesses need," Motty said. "Going out and looking for (skilled) employees in different countries is probably going to become more and more a reality for our businesses."