The Northwest Territories Nominee Program’s annual federal cap of 300 applicants has been fully reinstated, minister Caitlin Cleveland says.
The minister made the announcement in the legislature on Friday. It was confirmed by her office, which said Ottawa had restored the immigration program’s pre-2025 levels.
At the start of the year, the federal government – carrying out a wider cut in immigration numbers nationwide – halved the NWT’s cap from 300 to 150 people.
The territory has spent the months since lobbying for the 300-person cap to be reinstated, arguing that the immigration pathway, which pairs applicants with vacancies at local businesses, was vital to the NWT’s economic development and even sustaining its population.
The GNWT has until the end of 2025 to assign the newly restored spaces. NWT employment minister Cleveland said her government will work on that “in very short order.”
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“This is an important milestone for the Northwest Territories and a clear example of how persistent, constructive advocacy delivers results for northerners,” Cleveland stated.
“Since the previous federal government cut our allocation in half earlier this year, our government has worked tirelessly to make the case that the North needs a nominee program that reflects our unique realities, one that supports small businesses, provides certainty for workers and families, and strengthens our communities.”
“The restoration of our full allocation means that employers will once again have access to the skilled workers they need to keep their businesses running and expand. It means that newcomers who have chosen to live and work in our communities will have a clearer path to stay and build their lives here. And it means that our small and remote communities will have better opportunities to grow their populations and economies sustainably.”
Cleveland said her department, which has responsibility for immigration in the NWT, is now “working quickly to open the next intake for the Northwest Territories Nominee Program so that eligible employers and applicants can take advantage of the restored allocation.”
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More details will be publicized soon, she added.
Before January’s announcement that the NWT’s cap was being halved, the territory had been making so much use of the program that ministers had been hoping for an increase to 500 annual spaces.
In the legislature on Friday, responding to questions from Great Slave MLA Kate Reid, Cleveland said the territory had asked Ottawa for more notice in future so programs can be run without the uncertainty that affected individuals and families when the rules suddenly changed at the start of 2025.
“I have asked for more advance notice so we know what levels will look like and a more forward-looking outlook,” the minister said.
Reid had earlier described the “intense anxiety” felt by people who “think they are doing all the right things, following all the right paths, and are stymied by the whiplash of federal policy changes.”
