N.S. unveils incentives to recruit doctors, tradespeople

Nova Scotia has unveiled a new team of navigators, an incentive the province hopes will attract young medical professionals and tradespeople to the province.

In a recent news release, the province said the new team will help connect health-care professionals and tradespeople to the information they need to move to

Nova Scotia. The province is also offering incentives.

“Our population is growing at record rates," said Premier Time Houston in the news release. "We want health-care workers and skilled tradespeople to know there’s both a great life and a great job waiting for them.”

The province will also be returning provincial tax on the first $50,000 of income new medical professionals or tradespeople earn once they move to Nova Scotia.

"We are unabashedly asking for workers in the trades and in health care to make Nova Scotia their home," said Skills Minister Jill Balser in the release.

The program is open to workers 30 years old and younger who are medical professionals or in designated trades.

The province is also launching a targeted campaign to promote Nova

Scotia’s growing job opportunities. It will include TV, radio, billboard and digital advertising.

The Department of Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage is also relaunching the successful Work from Nova Scotia campaign from 2020-21. The program encourages Canadians who work remotely to relocate or come to Nova Scotia for longer stays, highlighting the province’s communities, coastal lifestyle and experiences.

Nova Scotia is seeing its fastest population growth since 1971, with an increase of 6,777 from July 1 to Oct. 31.

The population growth is fuelled by both international and interprovincial immigration. Halifax was also recently declared the No. 1 community in Canada to live in by Maclean’s Magazine.