On November 25, Saskatchewan announced a new immigration pilot program to overcome the labor shortage in Saskatchewan. Although the eligibility for this program is not fully declared but this program will allow Saskatchewan employers to recruit international talent for some in-demand occupations. It is specifically designed for the labor shortage in certain occupations that includes manufacturing, health, agriculture, hospitality, construction, ag-tech, and retail.

In a media release, Immigration and Career Training Minister, Jeremy Harrison said that “The demand for labor in our province is strong, and it’s only going to increase with the significant economic projects recently announced in Saskatchewan. This new Hard-to-Fill Skills Pilot is progress on our autonomy discussions with the federal government and is going to help provide employers with greater access to international options to recruit workers. This is in addition to record investments into training and up-skilling our provincial workforce, as we enter a period of strong growth coming out of the global pandemic.”

This program is scheduled to launch in December 2021. The nominated workers of this program will be supported by their employers and the community.

Although it is not clearly declared, but some of the eligibility requirements for the employee include:

1. minimum Canadian official language proficiency level;

2. minimum educational and work experience requirements;

3. permanent job-offer and SINP job approval letter for an eligible occupation.

In addition to this, employers need to demonstrate their efforts to recruit the workers domestically before they can use this program to hire a worker internationally.

No further specifics have been released.