‘YK businesses are going to have a hard time providing services’

The Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce says federally imposed cuts to a key NWT immigration stream are creating a “severe labour crisis” in the city.

The NWT Nominee Program’s cap was reduced from 300 to 150 as the federal government corrected course on immigration at the start of the year.

In practice, once applications held over from last year are included, there were just 90 places available when the territory’s program briefly accepted applications earlier this month.

The chamber of commerce estimates at least 700 people representing five percent of Yellowknife’s workforce are affected, and maybe more.

In a news release on Tuesday evening, the chamber said businesses have “no available workforce to replace lost employees” who are either forced to leave the territory or choose to leave because there was no place in the nominee program for them.

Mark Henry, the chamber’s new president, walked Cabin Radio through the way in which the 90-person cap had affected businesses.

He gave an example of one business with 17 employees who qualified for the nominee program. The NWT government – in an effort to fairly distribute the few spaces it had – limited large companies to four applications each. That meant companies had to essentially draw straws to decide which of their employees’ applications go could forward. In the example, four applications advanced but 13 people were left out.

If an employee made it through that filter, their application reached the GNWT. The territory says it ultimately received 131 applicants, bearing in mind many would have been filtered out by the restrictions on companies and other criteria.

The GNWT then carried out a second random draw of its own to decide which of those 131 applicants got the 90 slots.

Ottawa has so far shown little sign of making a large shift in policy. With a federal election coming up, the likelihood of the NWT receiving any more nominee program spaces this year is uncertain.

“My concern is that businesses are going to have a hard time providing services,” Henry said.

“Some marginal businesses might close as a result. They might say it’s just not worth it to continue.”

Below, read our full interview with Henry. The chamber is now calling for a pan-territorial immigration strategy, exemptions from southern rules for the North, an increased nominee program allocation and extensions to expiring work permits.

The Yukon recently announced the extension of a program that allows people with expiring work permits to acquire Yukon-specific permits up to two years in length. So far, the NWT has not announced any similar program of its own.

The Government of Yukon, which like the NWT was given a 50-percent cut in its nominee program cap, said it doesn’t think the federal approach will change.

“In consideration of the Government of Canada’s priority to stabilize immigration levels across the country,” the Yukon stated, “lower allocation limits are expected to continue.”

New Prime Minister Mark Carney has appeared to back the broader federal position, stating in recent months that Canada has been operating with “much higher levels [of immigration] than we could absorb.”

Carney’s cabinet includes Rachel Bendayan as immigration minister, replacing Marc Miller.

This interview was recorded on March 18, 2025. The transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Ollie Williams: What are you hearing from businesses that make up the chamber’s members?

Mark Henry: Our current unemployment rate is four percent. We have a hard time filling open positions with Yellowknifers, people from the Territories, people from Canada. Over the years, the federal government, territorial government and chamber of commerce have been encouraging our constituent businesses to utilize immigration services as a mechanism to address that labour shortfall, and we were seeing traction, uptake.

This year, I would describe the federal government’s policy as lazy, not in tune with the realities of what we’re experiencing here in Yellowknife. It has really taken businesses out at the knees – that’s the general sentiment of how our constituent businesses feel right now.

There’s a lot of uncertainty to how the Explorer Hotel will open rooms for a booming tourism business, how Rochdi’s Independent or the Co-op are going to ensure lines are a reasonable length and shelves are stocked. There’s significant concern within the business community, and they’re vocally talking to me about it.

How many positions does this affect? Do we have any sense of that?

We don’t have a firm number. Estimates are between four and 7.5 percent of our active workforce, so in the range of 700 to 1,500 individuals, which is wild to think about – the federal government’s policy of trying to remove a large segment from our workforce. It’s quite concerning.

We asked the GNWT how many people applied for those 90 places. The GNWT said 131 applications were received. But I understand there’s an asterisk associated with that number.

Take a company – and this is an actual case – with 17 workers who want to apply. The company has more than 50 employees, so they were only allowed four spots. They had to put names in a hat and pull out four spots to fill a critically important aspect of their business, and immensely important to the individuals whose names were in that hat. It’s a really unfair process.

That number, 131, is not representative of the number of people within the system. There were filters restricting the number of applications. For example, the length of time they had to have served for their business increased from six to 12 months. There were a number of different constraints on who could apply.

The GNWT has communicated throughout that it disagrees with the federal government’s decision. The federal government has shown no sign of changing approach. What happens now?

Minister Caitlin Cleveland has been very supportive. We’ve had open conversations with her. We’re all pushing in that direction. Let’s read between the lines here: We’re going into a federal election and immigration is a hot-button topic.

Why is that the case? When there was a post-Covid shortage of labour, they essentially opened the taps as aggressively as you could to address a labour shortfall that was creating a significant economic impact to the country. There was a lot of discomfort as a result. There was an oversupply, and an oversupply that was somewhat random, not strategic.

The chamber’s position is not saying there’s not a problem with immigration. There certainly was a problem with immigration, and we’re now feeling it today. But the fundamental economic realities of the North – and of Yellowknife specifically at four-percent unemployment – mean we are really pushing the federal government to develop an immigration policy and program that is uniquely geared to the northern context.

When you talk to the federal government, you have to speak in federal government terms. What are their objectives? Northern sovereignty is a big question mark at this point. To me, the leading edge of that is the defence component but the back end of that wedge is we need to populate, we need people living here. We need to develop infrastructure and extract resources to really say to the world that this is ours.

Do not spend another dime stimulating economic development in the North without a progressive immigration strategy to allow businesses to actually engage in that opportunity because, right now, their policy is saying: “We’re not allowing you to.” It doesn’t make any logical sense.

There’s a federal election coming up. Are you expecting Ottawa to engage on this before that election? Or are you resigned to the idea that the conversation will come with a new government following an election?

It’s a hot-button election issue. My sense is they’re avoiding it at all costs. They don’t want to talk about it.

What are the levers we have at this point? Continue to lobby, continue to push, but a realistic understanding is to prepare for whichever government takes power post-election and ensure we’re talking in terms that are in line with their platform.

That makes me think the rest of this year might be a bit of a write-off. What’s that going to mean locally for businesses in this city, if we’ve had our 90 applicants for the year and we’re not getting any more until 2026?

It’s fairly evident you’re going to have two streams of people leaving: one that is forced because their work permit has expired and there’s no other avenue, and the other stream is individuals that don’t see a path and aren’t willing to continue to live in the North. They’re going to go find a job in Vancouver, Toronto or some other place that they may perceive as more accommodating and desirable.

My concern is that businesses are going to have a hard time providing services. Some marginal businesses might close as a result, they might say it’s just not worth it to continue. We don’t have the workforce to pursue the opportunity there that is evident and obvious.

Economic opportunity, business opportunity in Yellowknife for an entrepreneur is exciting. It’s this endless opportunity. The problem is there’s nothing more defeating than seeing that opportunity and not having the workforce to pursue it.