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Saskatchewan is taking more control over immigration.
According to the provincial government, the federal government has agreed to reduce duplication in the processing of Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program (SINP) nominations.
The federal Ministry of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada is amending regulations and the Canada-Saskatchewan Immigration Agreement, giving the province the power to assess a candidate’s ability to economically establish and their intent to reside in the province.
As well, the federal ministry has agreed to increase the annual allocation of provincial nominees for 2023, as well as announcing increased notional allocations for 2024 and 2025.
“These decisions are positive steps toward further provincial autonomy over immigration,” the provincial government said in a release.
In July, the Saskatchewan government revealed it was going to seek more control over immigration.
The proposed Saskatchewan Immigration Accord would allow the province to set its own immigration levels, select skilled immigrants to align with labour needs in the province, re-establish a family class immigration stream, and give the province control over the design and delivery of settlement and integration services.
The government noted that in 2022, the province used its entire federal allocation under SINP. For 2023, Saskatchewan asked for and received its largest allocation yet under SINP, at 7,250 nominations.
According to the province, the increase will mean about 18,000 newcomers to Saskatchewan this year, including nominees, their spouses and dependents. The expected allocation is 8,000 nominees in 2024 and 8,500 in 2025, which would be an increase of 42 per cent from the allocation in 2022.
“I am pleased to see that our proposal for a significant increase in our SINP allocation has been accepted by the Government of Canada,” Immigration and Career Training Minister Jeremy Harrison said in the release. “I am also encouraged by the positive commitments toward reducing federal processing times for SINP nominees and reducing administrative duplication.
“Saskatchewan is seeing record-high population growth numbers and immigration to the province has played a significant role in that. We are well on our way to our goal of 1.4 million residents by 2030. We also had positive discussions on the future direction of federal settlement funding. It has been our position that these funds would be best deployed by the province.”
The province noted the changes don’t meet all of its goals in immigration, so it plans to continue to negotiate with the federal government for more autonomy in that area.