An immigration expert says a dip in Saskatchewan’s latest population numbers can be attributed to a decline in non-permanent residents, as the province’s official Opposition opens itself up to suggestions on how to keep young people in.
Last October, Saskatchewan’s population grew by 9,251 people compared to the same reporting period in 2024, bringing the total to 1,266,234.
But compared to the end of the second quarter in July 2025, the population dropped by 725 people.
At a Wednesday press conference, Saskatchewan’s opposition leader, Carla Beck, said the province’s population declined for the first time in 20 years. However, a slight drop in the province’s population was also recorded between January and October of 2020, when the population dropped from 1,169,426 to 1,165,963, according to the province’s population numbers.
“Let’s not assume that people don’t wanna stay here, but there are things that are keeping them from staying in this province,” Beck said.
The NDP says the population dip is due to young people leaving the province, and launched an online survey on Wednesday to gather their ideas for change.
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But according to an immigration expert, the reasons for the changing population numbers are more complex and also not unique to Saskatchewan.
“We’ve seen zero population growth throughout Canada. But in Saskatchewan, it has actually not been as precipitous as some of the other communities,” said Rupa Banerjee, Canada research chair in the economic inclusion of immigrants and professor at Toronto Metropolitan University.
In a statement to Global News, the provincial government attributes the drop in population to a “necessary reset” in the number of immigrants to Canada.
“We continue to be supportive of carefully managed immigration that benefits Saskatchewan’s and Canada’s economy, and we expect Saskatchewan’s population to return to gradual, manageable growth in the future,” the statement read.
In 2024, the federal government introduced a cap on the number of temporary foreign workers and international students to address surging immigration levels.
This also led to the scaling back of the Provincial Nominee Program, which gives provinces an allowance for the number of skilled workers they can bring in each year. Banerjee says it is the reduction of the allowances in this program that has largely impacted Saskatchewan’s population.
Alongside the drop in skilled workers coming into the province, another issue leading to the lowered population numbers is that many who come to work in the province are choosing not to stay.
“Saskatchewan has done a really good job of putting preference on skilled workers, particularly in health care, in tech, and other areas like skilled trades where we really do have labour shortages,” said Banerjee.
“So people are coming in, but the question is, how long do they stay?”
According to Banerjee, newcomers who move to the province for a job often leave because they lack the services, community and support they feel they require to settle for the long term.
“I think the solution to that is providing more services for newcomers and building community. Resources so that people can build those communities,” said Banerjee, pointing to Halifax as a city that was not previously an immigrant centre but is making strides to support new communities.
“We don’t want people just to come here temporarily and then leave. We want them to settle, we want them to have children here, we want those children to do well and be prosperous and essentially allow Canada to grow and be prosperous,” said Banerjee.
In August, Saskatchewan was granted nearly 1,100 additional spots under the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program, bringing the province’s total to 4,761.
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