The provincial government says the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program is being changed in response to the federal government’s reduction of immigrants coming in to the country, announced late last year. The federal government cut nomination allocations to all provincial nominee programs by 50 per cent, leaving Saskatchewan with 3,625 nominations. That’s the lowest amount since 2009 and the added requirement is that 75 per cent of all nominees must already be living in Canada as temporary residents.

At the time, the federal government said the decision was made after a poll found that a majority of Canadians felt there was “too much immigration” and the changes would help to alleviate pressures on housing, health care and other services.

Saskatchewan’s Immigration and Career Training Minister, Jim Reiter says the changes to SINP include approvals for candidates overseas will be prioritized for health, agriculture and the skilled trades, and nominations for the accommodation, food services, retail trade and trucking sectors will be capped at 25 per cent of the total annual nominations. Two other charges are spas , salons and pet care services (excluding veterinarians) no longer being eligible to recruit through SINP, and the Entrepreneur, International Graduate Entrepreneur and Farm Owner/Operator categories will be permanently closed.

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