NTNP halts its relaunch plans

On 16 January 2025, the Government of the Northwest Territories announced that it would not relaunch the NTNP as previously planned.

Before this announcement, the Northwest Territories Nominee Program (NTNP) had been scheduled to relaunch on 16 January 2025 and intended to accept 100 applications for territorial nomination for Canadian permanent residence in its first intake.

The Government of the Northwest Territories has said it remains committed to relaunching the Northwest Territories Nominee Program (NTNP) and intends to announce and carry out the launch date “as soon as possible”.

Foreign nationals seeking a pathway to Canadian permanent residence through the NTNP will have to wait until the programme relaunches before submitting a territorial nomination application.

The territorial government attributes the delay to the Canadian federal government’s cut to the NTNP allocation. Last year, the NTNP was allocated 300 nominations for permanent residence by the federal government. On 15 January, the territorial government was notified by the federal government that its allocation for 2025 had been reduced to 150 nominations.

The territorial government decided to postpone the reopening of the NTNP so that it could reassess its plans for the programme in 2025 in light of the reduced nomination allocation from the federal government.

The federal government’s reduction in the NTNP allocation is in line with the overall reduction in permanent-residence immigration targets for the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) in 2025.

Trong immigration plan most recent, published on 24 October 2025, the federal government set a target of 55,000 candidates for the PNP, a 50% cut on the target of 110,000 candidates allocated to the PNP in 2024.

The federal government has cut the PNP more deeply than it has cut total immigration numbers, which fell by roughly 20%.

At the same time, the federal government increased the allocation for the federal economic immigration programmes managed through the Express Entrysystem, with allocations rising to 124,680 candidates for 2025, compared with 110,770 candidates planned for 2024. The federal government intends to direct the majority of these federal economic permanent-residence applications to the “In-Canada Focus” and “Federal Economic Priorities” categories.

The “Federal Economic Priorities” category covers French-speaking immigrants and immigrants working in healthcare occupations and in the trades.

Read the full official announcement from the Government of the Northwest Territories here.