Second flight full of displaced Ukrainians to land in Saskatchewan

A second group of Ukrainians fleeing the war in their home country will touch down in Saskatchewan next month to start a new life.

On Aug. 10, 240 Ukrainians are set to leave Warsaw, Poland, and then travel on to Regina. Jeremy Harrison, Saskatchewan’s immigration minister, said many are fleeing terrible circumstances.

“They never had any plans, obviously, to leave Ukraine, (but) were forced from their homes. Just kind of tragic circumstances,” Harrison said.

The first such flight touched down in Regina in early July, bringing 210 people with it. Harrison said it’s taken a large effort to make everything work, including efforts from municipal governments that are helping get people settled after they arrive.

“I think it’s worked remarkably smoothly,” Harrison said.

Saskatchewan Immigration Minister Jeremy Harrison speaks to reporters in Regina. (Gillian Massie/980 CJME)

The Ukrainians who arrived in July spent some time living in the University of Regina’s residences, but Harrison said they’re now living away from the campus and are very actively trying to find jobs.

“I know my officials have been very, very encouraged by how successful it’s been,” the minister said.

Harrison said he’s also been impressed with how people in Saskatchewan have taken things into their own hands.

“Basically an air evacuation organized by a small province of 1.2 million people. We will have done more than the entire federal government to evacuate people from Ukraine to bring here to Saskatchewan,” Harrison said.

Saskatchewan aims to take greater control over immigration

The provincial government is looking to take more control when it comes to choosing the immigrants who eventually settle in Saskatchewan. The government is proposing the ‘Saskatchewan Immigration Accord’ to the provincial government, a which was unveiled last week.

Harrison said the other provinces are on the same page in terms of that request from the federal minister.

“There is a real unanimous provincial view about the need for more provincial authority to be in the hands of our administrations, because we really do know our provinces better than the federal government,” said Harrison.

It’s something Harrison said Quebec is already doing.

Saskatchewan already has some control through the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program, which has 6,000 spots a year. Harrison said that has been really successful and is a big part of the reason the economy has grown recently.

Harrison said Saskatchewan is also asking for more positions in the provincial nominee program. He said they were talking about 13,000 positions, and the applications that have already come in would cover that number and more.

There have been a lot of frustration over how long the federal process takes, Harrison noted. He said Saskatchewan has got its selection process down to between two and six weeks, while the federal government is taking up to 40 months.

“We have worked hard on getting our selection process to a point where it’s measured in weeks and not multiples of years,” said Harrison.

The minister said he believes the federal government needs to focus on admissions, and leave selection to the provinces.

“I actually think it makes a lot of sense administratively,” said Harrison.

If the federal government doesn’t agree to the changes, Harrison said he wouldn’t rule out legal avenues, but said that’s not the route the province is pursuing right now. He said the federal government has agreed to another meeting on this topic, which will take place in a few months.