The Cape Breton Island Centre for Immigration (CBICI) opened its doors on April 1, 2016. The Centre, funded by the Nova Scotia Office of Immigration, was a response to the results of the Rural Urban Task Force led by Cape Breton University (CBU). This Task Force was created to examine Cape Breton’s population crisis, and, in part, the role that immigration might play in slowing the Island’s population decline.

Today, the Centre is dedicated to supporting newcomers in Cape Breton Island, and offers a number of services to help with settlement and integration.

CBICI has also been designated as an SPO (Settlement Service Provider Organization) by IRCC (Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada) as part of the Atlantic Immigration Pilot program. The AIP is a 3 year partnership with the four Atlantic Provinces, and the Government of Canada, and is part of the Atlantic Growth Strategy. This program is employer driven, and is designed to help employers fill positions that are difficult to fill locally. Since the launch of the program in March 2017, CBICI have created numerous settlement plans for AIP participants and their dependants, and several of those individuals have completed the process through this immigration stream and have received their Permanent Residency. If you would like to obtain additional information on this and the settlement role CBICI plays within it, let us know.

One of CBICI’s latest community events that had taken place On March 24th and co-hosted with A Better Bite Community Kitchen, was the second Taste of Canada event at the New Dawn Centre for Social Innovation. In addition to the international food market, the event played host to an art market. This second installment of Taste of Canada saw more than 300 members from the local area come to share in some of what our diverse community had to offer.

The Centre has been able to substantially grow its client base to more than double what it had been in the previous year, plans to continue to grow and expand our successes well into 2018 and beyond!

CBICI is administered by New Dawn Enterprises and is hosted in the New Dawn Centre for Social Innovation (37 Nepean Street, Sydney). The Centre is open Monday to Friday and can be reached at 902-270-5772 or by e-mail at cbici@newdawn.ca. You can read more about New Dawn and the Centre for Immigration on the New Dawn website: www.newdawn.ca.