Latest news with #YukonNomineeProgram
CBC
26-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Yukon Nominee Program reopens for applications from pre-approved businesses
The Yukon Nominee Program is now accepting applications from businesses that expressed interest this past spring and have been pre-approved. The government said it received 502 eligible expressions of interest from employers, and 392 of those "aligned" with the government's priorities for this year. Employers were prioritized if their nominee candidates were Yukon University graduates, French-speaking or have lived in the Yukon for a year. Selected businesses will now be invited to apply for the program via email, the government says. Those who were not selected will also be notified. Applicants with a temporary measure letter of support will be prioritized for approval, the government says. The remaining spots will be randomly selected. There are 215 nominee spots allotted to the Yukon for 2025. The Yukon government changed the application system after the program's popularity began surpassing the number of available spots. The nominee program is restricted to the number of nominees allowed by the federal government. This past spring, the Yukon government announced that businesses would be required to express interest and get approved based on a list of pre-set priority areas.
CBC
29-03-2025
- Business
- CBC
Yukon government sets priorities to guide this year's nominee program
The Yukon government has announced a set of priorities for this year's Yukon Nominee Program, marking a departure from its past first-come, first-served approach for applicants. The program, which is intended to help fill local labour market gaps by bringing in skilled immigrants, has remained closed since the federal government cut the Yukon's annual allocation to 215 nominees — half of what it received in 2024. On Thursday, the government said it will invite employers to submit an expression of interest in applying for the program. Employers will complete a form online, providing basic information about a specific foreign worker they want to nominate. That intake period will open on Monday, and close on April 22. Then, the Department of Economic Development will invite employers to submit a full application to the nominee program if their candidate fulfills one or more of the priorities. Those include: residence and employment in the Yukon for at least one year, being a graduate of Yukon University, ability to speak French, and a temporary measure letter of support from the Yukon government to obtain a Yukon-specific work permit. This year, 10 nominations will be allocated for people in regulated health-care professions. Intake for the nominee program was first paused for Whitehorse-based employers in May 2024 when applications exceeded the allocation limit for that year. The federal government halved the Yukon's allocation of nominees in 2025 from the previous year, to 215. The Yukon government then extended the program's hiatus to consult local businesses on how to best use that limited number of spots. The territory's Economic Development department considers the new process to be fairer and more strategic than the past practice, where the quickest businesses got access to the limited number of nominees. The listed priorities aim to reduce staff turnover rates, target those who are more likely to stay in the Yukon, support Francophone immigration and help prospective nominees who were affected when the program was first closed. While Premier Ranj Pillai believes the priorities reflect those of the business community, he singled out retail as an industry that will see fewer nominees. "I don't think everybody will be happy. I think parts of the economy that have really leaned on these programs are probably not going to see the same amount of availability to workers," he said. Pillai said the Yukon and federal government are having conversations about adding 100 nominations to the territory's allocation. Opposition cites concerns raised by auditor general The nominee program was a subject in the legislature's question period earlier this week, with the official opposition asking the government how it was responding to concerns raised by the auditor general in January. When speaking to reporters, Yukon Party Leader Currie Dixon only had a quick glance at the government's news release about the new priorities, which was posted Thursday as MLAs were sitting in the legislature. But he wanted to see changes that address the auditor general's concerns such as a lack of trust in the program's integrity and perceptions of unfairness. "We had hoped to see some sort of changes to the process that would accommodate the concerns raised by the auditor general, particularly around the lack of enforceable conflict of interest," Dixon said. NDP Leader Kate White also alluded to the auditor general's letter, which discussed the imbalance of power between employers and nominees. "There's a real vulnerability when you're a person from another country looking to come in through the nominee program. So I still have concerns," she said. In response to Dixon's comments, Pillai said he trusted department staff to act "appropriately," including by seeking advice from the conflict of interest commissioner. He also expressed confidence in the assistant deputy minister's oversight of the program. "I think we have a strong process in place. We're going to be chatting very soon about some [advice] we're going to have from outside the department," he said. "I think we're in a trust building process." According to the government's operational guidance, the intake for program applications will begin with those carried over from 2024 when applications outnumbered the Yukon's allocation for that year. This year's priorities will apply to those applications. The expression of interest phase will follow. If there are more expressions of interest that meet the 2025 priorities than there are available nominations, the department will invite those with the temporary measure letters of support to apply. The application spots left over will be randomly selected from qualifying expressions of interest.
CBC
25-03-2025
- Business
- CBC
Details of changes to Yukon Nominee Program expected Thursday
The territorial government is set to reveal Thursday how the Yukon Nominee Program will be rolled out this year. Premier Ranj Pillai said officials from the Department of Economic Development will brief reporters about the program, which has remained closed after the federal government cut the Yukon's allocation to 215 nominees — half of what it received in 2024. "I'm really leaning on industry associations as well as exploring procedural improvements for the 2025 application intake. Again, where we can streamline but improve service standards," Pillai said. The briefing will offer a look at how the government will respond to a letter from the federal auditor general in January. Though the office of the auditor general's (OAG) performance audit of the program has been suspended because of an RCMP investigation at a Yukon government office, its initial work turned up several perceived problems that the OAG said could be addressed right away. Some of those problems include long processing times for applications and a lack of support for employers and workers. Other concerns centred around fairness, with many believing that certain employers were being favoured, that identical applications were treated differently and that some employees at the department's immigration unit held significant influence over the programs. The auditor also raised the perceived power imbalance between employers and nominees that could lead to abuse, as well as the perception that nominees have been overqualified for their jobs, making it less likely that they would stay with their employers and in the Yukon. "From our discussions with various stakeholders, current and past nominees, as well as current and past employers, there is a consistent view that confidence in the Yukon Nominee Program and in the Yukon Business Nominee Program integrity is low," the letter states. Yukon Party leader Currie Dixon raised the issues flagged by the office of the auditor general during Monday's question period. Drawing from its letter, he told reporters that the watchdog made suggestions to the program that demanded action. "The auditor general lays [it] out very clearly. Their office says these kinds of programs are susceptible to fraud and corruption," he said. "This is serious stuff. We need to see confidence renewed in these programs because it doesn't exist right now." The auditor general made four suggestions to the Department of Economic Development: evaluate whether the immigration branch has enough resources, consider mechanisms that would restore confidence in the programs, establish ways to improve the balance of power between employers and employees and determine if the nominee program addresses the Yukon's labour market needs. Pillai said challenges with immigration programs in the Yukon have come up before and that his government is continuing to review the nominee program. "It's really about ensuring that if there's things happening in our programs that need to be improved on, you have to invest in them. You have to make sure you make the changes," he said.
