Sask., federal government agree to expand immigrant nominee program

The Saskatchewan government has reached an agreement with the federal government to increase the annual allocation for people in the province's immigrant nominee program over the next three years.

The province has been lobbying Ottawa for more autonomy over immigration. In 2022, the provincial government released the Saskatchewan Immigration Accord, a proposal to take over more control over international immigration from the federal government.

The province wanted its allocation from the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program (SINP) to increase to 13,000 annually from the 6,000 it was in 2022.

On Monday, Saskatchewan's Minister responsible for Immigration and Career Training Jeremy Harrison announced the annual allocation would rise to 7,250 in 2023, 8,000 in 2024, and 8,500 in 2025.

This year's increase is the largest allocation under the SINP and will result in "approximately 18,000 newcomers to the province this year including nominees, their spouses and dependents," the ministry said in a news release.

"I am pleased to see that our proposal for a significant increase in our SINP allocation has been accepted by the Government of Canada," Harrison said.

Harrison told reporters on Monday afternoon the changes come after meetings between the provinces and territories, and the federal government.

"[It's] a very large increase, [a] 42 per cent increase to our provincial nominee program over the next three years, that is  very substantial."

He said he was encouraged by commitments "toward reducing federal processing times for SINP nominees and reducing administrative duplication."

The provincial government said Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) also agreed to "give Saskatchewan the sole authority over assessing a candidate's ability to economically establish and their intent to reside within Saskatchewan."

"We felt the federal government were duplicating a lot of that back-end assessment and it took a lot of time, which really ended up benefiting no one and hurting newcomers looking to get permanent residency," Harrison said.

He said the provinces and territories also made progress on the issue of settlement funding. Harrison said the jurisdictions want to control that money.

"The purpose is to improve outcomes for settlements and ultimately keep people because they're settling successfully in the jurisdiction from which they're nominated for permanent residency."

Harrison said details on properly supporting and processing the influx of newcomers into the SINP in the next three years would be coming in next week's provincial budget.

"We are very committed to making sure our processing times remain as they are, which are some of the best in Canada. I mean, we're talking weeks for applications to be processed here at the provincial level. It can take up to four years at the federal level," he said.

"That obviously means we're likely going to have to put more resources behind that. So, so stay tuned for budget day."

While the provincial government is gaining more control over economic migrants, it still does not control the family class.

"We've been very clear as well that we want authority over the family class of immigration as well. The federal government retained that authority exclusively," Harrison said.

Opposition NDP MLA Trent Wotherspoon said he welcomes the increase in the SINP allocation, but that the provincial government needs to work harder to ensure immigrants who come to Saskatchewan stay in the province.

Last month, the Opposition criticized the government for its immigrant retention rates, which are the lowest west of Atlantic Canada. 

Between 2015 and 2020, Saskatchewan's retention rates dropped to 63 per cent from 78 per cent.

"We've seen those numbers plummet in Saskatchewan, we've lost so many newcomers to this province," Wotherspoon said.

"We need to make sure the supports are there around settlement, in our classrooms, and by way of jobs and opportunity to make sure we retain newcomers over the long term."