REGINA —- The province of Saskatchewan is looking to have more say in international immigration coming to the province.
Minister of Immigration and Career Training Jeremy Harrison met reporters at the legislature Tuesday in relation to the Saskatchewan Immigration Accord, which Harrison announced last week after a meeting with federal and provincial ministers responsible for immigration in New Brunswick.
According to the province's news release, the "new Saskatchewan Immigration Accord would give Saskatchewan sole authority to nominate newcomers moving to Saskatchewan, control over the family class of immigration, a transfer of federal resources for settlement services to the province of Saskatchewan and a guaranteed provincial allocation of nominees each year that would be proportionate to the population of Saskatchewan within Canada."
In speaking about the proposal Tuesday, Harrison told reporters the province is “looking for the same authority as Quebec has.”
Harrison pointed to Saskatchewan’s Provincial Nominee Program, which is responsible for a “very large portion of immigration in Saskatchewan.” He said the province is “asking for essentially under that program the selection of all migration into the province, which is something Quebec has with their provincial immigration program already.”
Harrison said the province felt it was in the best position to understand what its needs are with respect to immigration. But he also noted there continues to be a great deal of frustration with the federal government’s portion of the program on the admissions side.
“They’re taking upwards of 40 months right now to actually process immigration requests,” said Harrison. “We’re taking two to six weeks to process on the selection side of the equation. Forty months is not acceptable. And as a province, being able to actually do all of the selection component of this, we feel, is going to have a beneficial impact ultimately to those who are most important, which is the newcomer to Canada.”
He pointed out the province does 6,000 applications of the provincial nominee program a year, with the feds doing about 1,000 of the economic class. Harrison said it makes sense for those in the economic class to be transferred to the province to do.
The indication from the minister is they want to have a proportionate number allocated to the province every year based on their provincial population, which he says would be upwards of 13,000. Harrison also indicated the number of applications through the Provincial Nominee Program would “more than fill” that number of positions.
Harrison indicated the provinces were all on the same page on the issue during their meeting last week.
“I’ve never seen such unanimity amongst the provinces asking for the same thing from the federal government, which is more control over our immigration system and additional positions for our provincial nominee programs.”
He said a follow-up meeting is planned between the provinces and the federal minister, and Harrison pledged to hold the feds “accountable as far as the commitments made to that table of immigration ministers, who represent parties right across the political spectrum in the provinces.”
The idea is for the province to be able to meet their economic needs and address gaps in the labour market in a timely manner. Harrison cited the hospitality industry as one area needing workers. Another area needing workers is the construction industry, and Harrison also pointed to the ag sector as well.
The minister also acknowledged the importance of training Saskatchewan workers to fill positions, and said that was the top priority. “Even with that, though, we continue to have real skill shortages throughout other sectors of the economy.”
