Overview of the REDI initiative

The Regional Economic Development through Immigration (REDI) initiative is a partnership between the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development’s Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) and participating communities across Ontario. The initiative aims to attract and retain skilled workers in regional communities by leveraging the OINP to address critical workforce needs that cannot be met through the local labour market.

The OINP’s targeted regionalization initiative began as a pilot in 2020 with 3 partner communities and expanded in 2025 with the selection of 4 new community partners. To date, the initiative has supported the nomination of nearly 1,000 workers across 7 partner communities, helping to strengthen critical economic sectors, including healthcare and the skilled trades.

About the initiative

The REDI initiative will allocate nomination spaces to selected partner communities that have demonstrated a critical need for newcomer talent and a strong potential for immigration uptake, including economic diversification, employer engagement and settlement services to support newcomer integration.

This initiative will continue to:

  • promote the OINP, encouraging program uptake in participating communities
  • enable collaboration with regional partners to educate employers on how best to leverage the OINP to fill local labour needs
  • provide a pathway to permanent residence for skilled foreign workers in the participating communities

Participating communities receive dedicated support from the OINP, including information sessions for employers. Employers have access to business service support to help them leverage the program.

Partnering communities for 2026-2027

Geographic boundaries: Census Division as defined by Statistics Canada.

How the communities were chosen

In the spring of 2026, the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development invited communities from across Ontario, outside of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), to express their interest in participating in the initiative.

The partnering communities were selected based on their need for economic immigration by demonstrating:

  • representation of the geographic and cultural diversity of Ontario
  • specific labour challenges including in healthcare
  • community capacity and willingness to support the REDI initiative
  • ability and readiness to help newcomers get settled
  • interest and support from community stakeholders, including employers and municipalities

Contact us

Employers and stakeholders

If you are an employer or a stakeholder in one of the partnering communities, you can contact the OINP at immigration.ontario@ontario.ca to find out more about the program, or to schedule an employer consultation.

Applicants

For potential applicants, if you have general questions about the OINP, you can:

If you have questions about your application for a visa or temporary permit or your application for permanent residence, please contact Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada through their website or by telephone at   1-888-242-2100   (in Canada only).