New work-from-home campaign invites people to move to Nova Scotia

A new online campaign is boasting the joys of living in Nova Scotia as a way to entice people across Canada to move to the province, now that working from home is becoming the norm. 

"This campaign came about out of a recognition that people are working from anywhere now," Laurel Broten, the CEO of Nova Scotia Business Inc., said in an interview with CBC Radio's Information Morning on Wednesday.

"So we, along with our sister Crown corporations, developed this campaign that says, 'If you're working from anywhere, why not work from here?'"

Work From Nova Scotia is an online campaign that targets people within Canada looking for a new place to live because they can now work remotely.

Nearly 40 per cent of Canadian workers telecommuted during the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to about 10 to 13 per cent in previous years, according to Statistics Canada estimates.

That fact has the Nova Scotia government rethinking how it markets the province.

"We talk to people all around the world and we've continued to do that throughout the pandemic, and they're very surprised when they say, 'Are you in your office? Are kids in school? What's happening there?'" Broten said. 

"So the fact that we're a jurisdiction that has done well with COVID-19 is critically important." 

However, Broten said the campaign is working to attract migrants already in Canada, due to pandemic travel restrictions.

She said the goal of the campaign is to welcome 15,000 migrants to Nova Scotia by the end of 2021, doubling last year's number.

"We have seen a positive inflow," she said. "We think that this campaign has long legs in terms of an immigrant-in-migration campaign, but for now, our primary focus is migration."

Broten said the campaign is also trying to draw in people who are looking for a new, permanent place to live, or people who want to work from the province for a few months at a time.

The campaign's website provides information that people would need before deciding to make the move, like details about schools, real estate, health care, and most importantly while working from home, internet access.

Broten said she also expects people who already have ties to Nova Scotia to move to the coastal province.

"You might not physically have lived here yourself or maybe you came to university here," she said. 

"Maybe your grandmother was from here and you summered here and you just have a tie to the jurisdiction and a really positive feeling about it, and you'd like to come back."

Broten said the campaign has already generated 262,000 clicks, more than 500,000 page views and more than 110,000 users have explored the website since mid-January.

She said Nova Scotia Business Inc., will work with the provincial and federal governments to track who moves to Nova Scotia to determine the success of the campaign.