Q2 update: quota over half used, progress varies by category

According to the latest quarterly statistics posted on the Government of Saskatchewan's website (SINP updates its nomination data every quarter, and this release covers the period ending June 30, 2026), the province has issued 2,628 nominations so far in 2026, about 55% of its total 2026 allocation of 4,761 spaces. That marks a clear acceleration from the first quarter, when Saskatchewan had issued 1,223 nominations by March 31, using just 26% of the allocation; the pace of nominations roughly doubled between the first and second quarters. Since 2025, SINP has managed its allocation through a three-tier system that divides all spaces into priority sectors, capped sectors and other sectors, each with its own quota size and application rules. As of June 30, the breakdown across the three categories was as follows:

That leaves 2,133 nomination spaces still available for the remainder of 2026.

Policy background: from steep federal cuts to a partial year-end restoration

Saskatchewan's 4,761-space allocation for 2026 carries forward the same total finalized for 2025, but that figure sits at the end of two years of sharp swings in federal immigration policy. The province's allocation had grown to 7,250 spaces in 2023 (later topped up to 7,350 by the federal government) and climbed further to 8,000 in 2024, a high-water mark for the program. That changed when Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) published its 2025-2027 Immigration Levels Plan in October 2024, cutting the national Provincial Nominee Program's permanent-resident landing target from 110,000 to 55,000, a reduction of roughly 50%. The cut forced Saskatchewan's initial 2025 allocation down to just 3,625 spaces, the lowest level since 2009. Facing pressure on its labour market, the province secured a federal top-up of 1,136 spaces in August 2025, bringing its final 2025 allocation back up to 4,761. Diane Robinson, Communications Director for Saskatchewan's Ministry of Immigration and Career Training, said at the time: "Reducing the number of permanent and temporary residents in Canada should not come at the expense of economic immigration to Saskatchewan."

Notably, IRCC reversed course again in its 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan, published in November 2025, sharply raising the national Provincial Nominee Program landing target for 2026 to 91,500 (within a range of 82,000 to 105,000), an increase of about 66% over the previous 55,000 target, and the largest single-year increase for the Provincial Nominee Program in Canadian immigration history, even as total national permanent-resident intake held steady at roughly 380,000 per year. Saskatchewan's 4,761 allocation, however, did not rise in step with that national increase and remains on the lower end among the country's major receiving provinces, part of why the province has spent the past two years building out a more granular, sector-based system for managing its limited spaces.

Priority sectors expand to seven fields; 750 spaces reserved for local graduates

For 2026, SINP has set the priority-sector share of its total allocation at 50%, equivalent to 2,380 spaces, the largest of the three categories and the one moving fastest. The Saskatchewan government has designated the following seven fields as priority sectors for 2026:

• Healthcare;
• Agriculture;
• Skilled trades;
• Mining;
• Manufacturing;
• Energy; and
• Technology.

That is a marked expansion from 2025, when only three fields (healthcare, agriculture and skilled trades) carried priority status. Immigration consultants have read the addition of mining, manufacturing, energy and technology as a signal that Saskatchewan's economic strategy is shifting from filling service-sector labour gaps toward anchoring the resource-based and technology-based pillars of its economy, a shift that reflects the province's position as a major producer of potash, uranium and oil and its efforts to grow a domestic technology sector.

Within the 2,380 priority-sector spaces, SINP has set aside 750 specifically for graduates of Saskatchewan-based Designated Learning Institutions (DLIs) who are employed in priority occupations, an incentive designed to keep locally trained talent in the province. Saskatchewan has also indicated that its 50% target for priority sectors could be exceeded if demand justifies it, which would reduce the share of spaces left for other sectors; the province plans a mid-year review to assess whether the 50% target remains achievable and whether additional spaces should be released to other categories. "Other sectors" (meaning any sector not designated as priority or capped) account for 25% of the 2026 total, or 1,191 spaces, of which 444 had been issued as of June 30, a 37% usage rate.

The 2026 allocation breaks down by category as follows:

Taken together, the three capped sectors account for 25% of the total allocation.

Capped sectors: accommodations and food services split for the first time; intake windows open in July

To better balance market demand with labour supply, SINP caps annual nominations in a handful of sectors, collectively known as capped sectors. For 2026, the capped sectors are Accommodation and Food Services, Retail Trade and Other Services, and Trucking. As of June 30, the capped-sector allocation stood at 1,190 spaces in total, with 718 issued, a 60% usage rate.

Unlike priority sectors and other sectors, which accept applications year-round, capped sectors operate on a fixed-window, first-come basis: employers may apply only during SINP's designated intake periods, and only for workers who have six months or less remaining on their work permits. Once a window's spaces are claimed, applications pause until the next window opens.

The next round of capped-sector intakes opens across four staggered windows on July 6 and 7:

Unlike previous rounds, this is the first time Saskatchewan has split its combined "Accommodation and Food Services" category into two separate categories, accommodations and food services, each with its own allocation and its own opening slot. The province is hosting a webinar on July 2 at 11 a.m. to walk employers and applicants through the details of this intake round. Saskatchewan's published intake history shows that previous capped-sector windows have typically filled within hours or days of opening, reflecting strong employer demand; immigration consultants have also cautioned that because intake windows are brief and applicants must fall within a narrow six-month pre-expiry period, employers who miss a window risk permanently losing an already-trained worker.

Beyond the July round, SINP has two more capped-sector intake windows scheduled before year-end, on September 14 and November 2, 2026; the specific sectors and space counts for those dates will be announced closer to each opening.

Labour market pressure remains a key driver behind the policy shifts

As of the end of 2025, Saskatchewan had 47,503 non-permanent residents, of whom 31,458 held work permits. Nationally, roughly 300,000 work permits are set to expire around March 2026, and hospitality and food-service employers in particular have reported worker shortages. Analysts say the decision to manage accommodations, food services, retail trade and trucking as capped sectors, and to require that applicants be within six months of their work permit's expiry, is designed to prioritize workers already in Saskatchewan who are at risk of losing legal status, rather than to expand overseas recruitment, underscoring the program's broader shift from volume-driven results toward more targeted labour market outcomes.