Program: Immigrant Applicants and Week Ottawa

program: The pilot, announced in July as part of the Atlantic Growth Strategy and officially launched in March, aims to bring up to 2,000 primary immigrant applicants and their families in 2017 with increased numbers in following years if the program performs well, according to The Chronicle Herald. Irving, the prime contractor for the combat portion of the government's multi-billion-dollar National Shipbuilding Strategy, would not say how many employees it is hoping to hire under the program. Last week Ottawa boasted significant interest in the program and the Nova Scotia department of immigration says about 120 Nova Scotia companies have submitted applications to participate. Spokesman Sean Lewis said only that the company is hiring for 375 positions in 2017, looking first for employees within Canada. Irving has taken heat recently for looking to Europe for shipyard workers and hiring Spanish naval outfitting contractor Gabadi to bring in employees for turnkey outfitting on the vessels. Lewis confirmed Monday that the company has recruitment efforts planned for communities in Australia, Western and Southern Europe and the United States, in addition to ongoing Canadian recruitment. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.