The St. John’s Board of Trade says the push to increase the province’s immigration numbers needs to continue.

The federal government recently reduced immigration allocations—including temporary foreign workers—for the provinces and Newfoundland and Labrador was no exception.

Newfoundland and Labrador saw a drastic cut in its economic immigration numbers early this year, but a compromise was struck when the province agreed to take on more asylum-seekers.

CEO of the St. John’s Board of Trade, AnnMarie Boudreau, says there’s still a long way to go to address the province’s need, especially when it comes to the labour crunch.

“We did have a degree of success and there was a 50 per cent allocation, reallocated for the province…so that’s helpful,” says Boudreau, “but it doesn’t fully alleviate the problem.” She says there are still businesses that are having a hard time finding the employees that they need.

“Our work there isn’t done, we need to keep this conversation going.”