A pilot project to relocate workers is looking to expand.
Todd Clyde is CEO of Blue Branch.
The company started out relocating skilled trades to meet demand in Stratford, eight of which were pulled from the automotive industry here in Windsor.
Clyde tells AM800 News Super Commuting pilot-project eliminates the "what if's" of relocating
Blue Branch , fly's them in, houses them, and brings them back home to visit loved ones — charging a flat fee to the company with the long term goal of getting workers hired permanently.
"All the barriers, the hard decisions of relocating to say why don't you just come out for six weeks at a time and one week back home? Do it as much as you want until you either find jobs back home or you say this is a great place, maybe I would want to relocate here," he says.
A larger model of the program will see communities' trade-off in areas there's a surplus of skills, he added.
"We have our team look for where the highest rates of unemployment are across Canada and then we focus our efforts there to say there's a lot of unemployment here, we've got a lot of demand in these areas, lets connect the two," says Clyde.
Blue Branch is hoping the government will see the value in the service and give employers subsidies.
"We could really increase the reach of this program. About 15 to 20% of our employees that were hired last year have come of social assistance," he says. "For every 10 employees that Blue Branch hires the government saves upwards of $50,000 a year."
Clyde and his team pitched municipalities at the Rural Ontario Municipal Association Conference in Toronto over the weekend.