Three business groups in the Northwest Territories have asked federal and territorial leaders to help international workers with expiring work permits.
At the start of 2025, Ottawa cut in half the number of people the NWT can accept through a key immigration stream.
Business leaders have for months said vacancies will be tough to fill with so few places available, while workers with expiring permits who did not get one of 90 berths offered in February have no recourse.
The Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce, NWT Chamber of Commerce and francophone economic development group CDÉTNO said on Friday they had written to newly elected NWT Liberal MP Rebecca Alty and territorial minister responsible Caitlin Cleveland.
In that letter, the groups request “immediate federal approval for a two-year extension of work permits for eligible foreign nationals” in the NWT.
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They say jurisdictions like the Yukon and Manitoba already have something similar in place.
The NWT’s Department of Education, Culture and Employment has been approached for comment.
The business groups say their members have “growing concerns” about losing staff whose permits expire as early as this month, and who have no means of remaining without government intervention.
“Our members are already facing staffing challenges,” Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce executive director Matt Halliday was quoted as saying in a press release.
“If these permits are not extended, we risk seeing service disruptions, reduced hours, and even closures of vital businesses that our economy relies on.”
