REGINA - The Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program is being paused for a brief period after the federal government has cut in half the number of spots that are available.
At the Legislature, Finance Minister Jim Reiter told reporters Friday morning that approximately 7,200 spots had been made available in the past. That has now been cut to 3,600, and of those Reiter said 75 per cent have to be allocated towards temporary residents.
“That leaves about 900 left for us to target specific sectors meeting labor mobility challenges, labor market challenges,” said Reiter.
The indication is those will be restricted to certain priority areas, and while it is too early to presume what the ministry will consider as priorities, Reiter indicated “I would think it's safe to assume healthcare will be one of them.”
“We need specialists. We need, for example, in the past, there's been recruitment efforts made in the Philippines for nurses. Those would all have to come out of that very small target of 900.”
Reiter said they felt it would be “incredibly unfair to keep accepting applications, let them build up. If we continue to do that, we'd be in a predicament where roughly almost 200 applications come in a week. By the end of the month, we'd be using up all the allocations.”
Reiter said they would take a “very brief pause. We recognize that this is causing stress for some people. We're going to make this as short-term as we possibly can, and then let folks know what areas of the economy we're going to be targeting with this.”
As for how long the pause would be Reiter expects it to be “very short-term.” There are reports it could be four months, but Reiter expects to be briefed by the ministry on the timeline before the end of the month.
The news about SINP landed with a thud with opposition New Democrats, who held their own news conference alongside local business representatives shortly afterwards to denounce the pause.
NDP Immigration Critic Noor Burki denounced the lack of prior warning from the province to businesses about the change.
“Pausing this program without notice is reckless,” Burki said.
“Businesses need these workers. These are skilled workers who have followed every rule.
Some waited for years, but now they can't make home, Saskatchewan. I wrote to the Deputy Ministers and Immigration Ministers on Feb. 25th outlining the concerns of small businesses. Still no response. Meanwhile, workers are being left in limbo. This must change. This government must focus on the future and reverse its decision.”
Nick Mastromatteo, with Insul Fibre, said 95 per cent of their work is on schools, hospitals, the institutional sector as a whole and the remand project in Saskatoon. He said that over the last calendar year 40 per cent of their new hires have fallen under the SINP program, and 30 per cent of their total workforce falls under SINP as well.
“The level of uncertainty has really affected our workforce and you can see it on their face when they come into the office asking when the program will be lifted,” Mastromatteo said, adding the “uncertainty of when the program will reopen has been a big strain on our industry as a whole.”
“So I'd urge the SINP program to open up again and reserve spots for especially the construction industry as the province of Saskatchewan is growing. We need skilled labor to complete the work that has been put forward by the Saskatchewan government.”
NDP Economy and Jobs Critic Aleana Young did not buy Reiter’s argument that the SINP program needed to be retooled to deal with the smaller number of 900 allocations.
“I don't think it's a good way to run a province. I don't think it's a good way to manage the immigration system. Like, we knew there were going to be changes coming to the federal system,” Young said.
“The relationship between the province and the federal government is obviously one that hasn't necessarily been constructive, although I do believe that the bureaucrats and the civil servants work quite well together. But frankly, the government should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time on this. They should be able to consult with the impacted people, least of all the employers. It's not that hard to get folks in the room and have a roundtable.”
