Provinces Solely Assess PNP Nominees

Summary#

This is a proposed change to the Regulations Amending the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (Provincial Nominee Program) published February 22, 2025. The change would make provinces and territories the sole assessors of whether a nominated person can economically establish in a province and intends to live there, removing the duplicate federal check by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

What it does#

• Replaces the federal rules that let IRCC re‑assess a province’s decision about a nominee’s economic establishment and intent to live in the province.
• Says a person is in the provincial nominee class if they are named in a nomination certificate that is:
  • issued by the province under a provincial nomination agreement with the federal government;
  • made according to selection criteria approved in writing by the Minister; and
  • made on the basis of the person’s ability to become economically established and their intention to reside in the nominating province.
• Gives the province or territory the sole responsibility to evaluate those two factors (ability to economically establish and intent to reside).
• Leaves IRCC (and the Canada border agency) responsible for the federal admissibility and security checks.
• The proposal is at the consultation stage. Interested people can send comments within 30 days of the notice. The changes would come into force on the day the regulations are registered.

Who's affected#

• Provinces and territories that run Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs). Note: PNPs exist for all provinces and territories except Quebec and Nunavut.
• Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) — it would stop re‑checking some eligibility factors and focus on admissibility.
• Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) — it would no longer duplicate intent‑to‑reside checks and would save processing time.
• People nominated under PNP streams (immigration applicants). They may spend less time re‑proving eligibility to both provincial and federal officers.
• The analysis says participating provinces are not expected to face extra costs. The notice says all provinces and territories consulted were supportive and CBSA was supportive.

Why it matters#

• It aims to cut duplication between provincial decisions and federal checks. That could speed up processing for applicants.
• IRCC estimates the change would save about $681,767 in processing costs over 10 years (measured in 2023 dollars), at a cost to IRCC of about $345,092, for a net benefit of about $336,674 over the 2024 to 2033 period.
• IRCC says savings are based on processing roughly 47,800 PNP permanent‑residence cases a year and an average reduction of three minutes of officer time per application.
• It formalizes that provincial selection criteria must be approved by the federal Minister, which the document says brings consistency across agreements.
• The change is mainly administrative and technical. The notice says it should not affect Indigenous peoples or small businesses, and provinces told the federal government they support the change.