The doors to the province of Saskatchewan are being flung wide open for people fleeing the war-torn country of Ukraine, the province announced today.
The province of Saskatchewan was built with a lot of Ukrainian hands, and Immigration and Career Training Minister Jeremy Harrison said it’s time to “pay the debt back to those generations” of Ukrainian immigrants.
Harrison spoke with federal Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada Sean Fraser and told him Saskatchewan would open its doors to an unlimited number of Ukrainians impacted by the conflict.
“Ukrainians will find a welcoming environment in our communities, including many residents with the same culture and language, which will assist in ensuring long-term success with resettlement in Saskatchewan,” Harrison said in a media release.
The release added that Saskatchewan will prioritize applications received from Ukrainian citizens through the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program (SINP), which has added 300 Ukrainian citizens to the province over the last five years.
The United Nations has said that hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces over the last week.
About 15 per cent of Saskatchewan’s population trace all or part of their ancestry through Ukraine.