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Industries that rely on temporary foreign workers in Saskatchewan are bracing for impact as thousands of permits are expected to expire in the province by the end of the year.
At the end of this year, more than 1.3 million temporary work permits are set to terminate, according to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB).
Meanwhile, around 300,000 permits nationwide are expected to expire at the end of March.
In Saskatchewan, industries such as hospitality, trucking, agriculture and the skilled trades rely on temporary foreign workers to fill labour gaps, said Brianna Solberg, provincial affairs director at CFIB.
“They’re going to lose access to those workers, and so it will come as a huge blow to their productivity,” Solberg said, adding that small businesses are especially at risk due to their greater reliance on these workers.
“We want to hire from within our own borders, for sure — it just makes way more sense. But unfortunately, that isn’t always the only labour pool that we can rely on,” said Jim Bence, president and CEO of Hospitality Saskatchewan.
Saskatchewan’s hospitality industry has been bracing for impact since legislative changes to immigration were introduced in late 2024, said Bence, adding that the province’s low population and small labour pool make the situation more difficult.
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“As the temporary foreign worker and international student population has evaporated, those jobs are going unfilled. And so our anticipation is that by July of this year, we will see significant shortfalls,” Bence said.
At the end of 2025, Saskatchewan was home to 47,503 non-permanent residents, 31,458 of whom held work permits, according to Statistics Canada.
In Canada, the temporary foreign worker program accounts for around 10 per cent of all non-permanent residents and around one per cent of the total workforce.
For the last 25 years, Saskatchewan has relied on recruiting workers and newcomers to grow its population, said Andrew Stevens, associate professor of business at the University of Regina, adding that it has escalated over time.
“Certain industries in Saskatchewan have come to bolt into their business model foreign workers in some capacity,” said Stevens.
For those with expiring work permits, Stevens says questions remain about what happens next.
“Do those workers go home? Do they stay in Canada because they might actually be legally permitted to stay here under certain conditions? But they’re not allowed to work, which means they might be forced into gig or platform-economy labour, or work informally and under the table.”
On Friday, the federal government announced new temporary measures for up to 12 months that allow rural employers to retain their current temporary worker numbers and increase their allowable share from 10 to 15 per cent of their total workforce.
But these new measures must be requested by provinces and territories and can be implemented no earlier than two weeks after the request.
The earliest these measures can be in place is April 1 and are set to expire March 31, 2027.
Sector-specific exemptions from the cap remain in place, while health care, construction and food processing sectors will continue to see a 20 per cent cap on their low-wage temporary foreign workforce.
“In many parts of rural Canada, employers are dealing with tight labour markets, smaller local workforces, and fewer people able to move where the jobs are,” said Buckley Belanger, secretary of state for rural development, in the government’s press release.
The government of Saskatchewan tells Global News in a statement that the federal government “did not provide provinces with any prior notice of this announcement.”
“As such, the Government of Saskatchewan has not had the opportunity to review the details of the announcement and cannot comment further at this time.”
The CFIB says it welcomes the federal government’s Friday announcement, adding that it hopes to gain more clarity on how these temporary measures will affect those with expiring permits.
“We’re really hoping that the Saskatchewan government works with Ottawa to make sure that this policy can benefit our rural employers,” said Solberg.
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