Six communities get dedicated nomination spaces, but applications still run through existing OINP streams

The Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program confirmed in its Oct. 16 program update that a new REDI round has begun. According to the official notice, the information was in fact released two days earlier, on Oct. 14, 2026, when the list of partner communities also went up on the REDI page, ahead of the formal entry on the updates page.

The six communities in this round are Greater Sudbury, Kenora District, Nipissing District, Rainy River District, Renfrew County and Thunder Bay. Each is defined by the census division boundaries set by Statistics Canada.

REDI has no application process of its own. The province sets aside a number of nomination spaces for each of the six communities, but candidates must still apply through an existing OINP stream and meet every eligibility requirement of that stream. How many spaces each community has been allotted has not been disclosed.

At present, the Ontario Workforce Priority Stream (OWPS) is the only stream still open through which foreign nationals can apply for a provincial nomination.

From a three-community pilot to six communities: REDI's six years

REDI is not a new program. It was first launched as a pilot in 2020 with only three participating communities. In January 2025 it was formally introduced under the REDI name with four additional communities and an initial one-year mandate. Draws did not stop at the end of 2025, however, and continued through April 2026.

The four communities in the previous round were Lanark, Leeds and Grenville, Sarnia-Lambton and Thunder Bay. Of the six in the current round, only Thunder Bay has been retained; the other five are new.

According to OINP figures, REDI has so far nominated nearly 1,000 workers in partner communities, concentrated in in-demand fields such as health care and the skilled trades.

Invitation volumes shrank round after round

The pace of REDI draws reflects how heavily the pathway was used. The first draw on June 3, 2025, issued 843 invitations in a single round, after which the numbers fell steadily: 138 on Aug. 28, 90 on Oct. 9 and 76 on Dec. 10. In 2026, 47 invitations went out on Feb. 2 and 39 on March 18, before the final round on April 8 issued just 32. The seven draws totalled roughly 1,265 invitations.

The last draw was limited to candidates already living in Canada, holding a valid work permit or study permit, and in possession of a job offer from an employer in Lanark or Leeds and Grenville.

The decline tracked fluctuations in the province's overall allocation. Ontario's nomination allocation was 10,750 in 2025, half the 21,500 it received in 2024, before recovering to 14,119 in 2026. That is an increase of about 30 per cent year over year, but still below the historical peak. At the federal level, the PNP admissions target was cut from 110,000 to 55,000 in 2025. A smaller overall allocation directly reduces the space available to every stream and every region.

Old streams closed, new stream yet to hold a draw

The previous REDI round relied on the three Employer Job Offer streams. In May 2026, Ontario amended its regulations to prepare for closing those pathways, and regulatory changes that took effect on June 25, 2026, formally removed the eight existing streams from the nomination system.

The same amendment created a single stream, the OWPS. On July 20, OINP published the eligibility criteria for the new stream on its updated web pages. On Aug. 4, the Expression of Interest (EOI) system opened, covering all levels of the National Occupational Classification (NOC), from TEER 0 to 5, with a separate pathway for self-employed physicians. On Oct. 5, OINP adjusted the "Canadian work experience - earnings history" scoring factor, awarding 10 points to candidates who earned CAD 80,000 or more in any single year within the past five years.

Officials describe the new architecture as the first phase of a two-stage redesign. The content and launch date of the second phase have not been announced. Since registration opened, the OWPS has not held a single draw.

In other words, in the gap between the closure of the old streams and the first invitations issued under the new one, REDI is one of the few parts of Ontario's nomination system that carries an explicit regional focus and is already in operation.

Three federal pilots run in parallel across the same region

Three of the six REDI communities are also covered by federal immigration pilots. These programs are separate from OINP, and applicants must follow their own processes and meet their own criteria.

• Rural Community Immigration Pilot (RCIP): aimed at foreign workers who hold a job offer from a designated employer in a participating community, and leading directly to permanent resident (PR) status. Three RCIP communities fall within the REDI region: Sudbury, under Greater Sudbury; North Bay and Area in Nipissing District; and Thunder Bay.
• Francophone Community Immigration Pilot (FCIP): aimed at French-speaking workers with a job offer from a designated employer in a francophone minority community. Applicants must reach NCLC 5 or above in all four abilities: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Only one FCIP community, Sudbury, lies within the REDI region.
• Francophone Minority Communities Student Pilot (FMCSP): offers a study permit and a subsequent path to permanent residence for French-speaking students from eligible countries. The pilot operates through institutions rather than communities. There are currently 17 participating institutions, two of which have campuses in the REDI region: Université Laurentienne in Sudbury, and Collège Boréal, which has campuses in both Sudbury and Nipissing District.

RCIP and FCIP launched on Jan. 30, 2025, with 14 and 6 participating communities across the country respectively. Six of those communities are in Ontario.

How the six REDI regions map to the federal pilots