Premier Ranj Pillai has confirmed the Yukon Nominee Program is part of a police investigation related to RCMP executing a search warrant for information held at the Yukon government’s Economic Development department offices.
Pillai is the minister in charge of Economic Development, which the Yukon Nominee Program falls under.
On Nov. 20, Yukon RCMP confirmed by email the investigation related to the execution of the search warrant for information held at the department offices is ongoing.
Pillai told reporters in the cabinet office on Nov. 20 that he was briefed in the spring about the RCMP looking into “concerns.”
“I know that the Justice department has had discussions with them. I think my earlier sense of this was that it did not have to do with operational activities, but potentially clients of the department,” Pillai said.
Pillai said he wasn’t aware of the Yukon Business Nominee Program being part of any police probes.
He said the Yukon had a new immigration strategy that the government was ready to put out but held off on.
“Not so much because of what's happening in this situation, but because of what's happening across the country. We're seeing the federal government make a lot of new decisions. We're waiting to see what those policy changes would mean for us in the Yukon,” Pillai said.
“The other item for us has really been around making sure that we still have a good response to the private sector, because we've got a tremendous amount of interest.”
He noted the Yukon Nominee Program received more applications than spots available. Intake for Yukon Nominee Program applications for Whitehorse-based businesses has been put on pause since May.
“We're waiting to see what the RCMP is going to say. We're fully cooperating with whatever they need,” Pillai said.
Pillai said he wasn’t aware of any personnel changes within the department as a result of the continuing police investigation.
The News reported on the search warrant in early June, after obtaining a June 4 email from deputy minister Deborah Lemaire that contains the subject line “notification of investigation at department.”
The auditor general’s office is holding off its performance audit of the Yukon Nominee Program and Yukon Business Nominee Program “out of respect for any ongoing” RCMP investigations, according to a Nov. 15 letter from Andrew Hayes, the deputy auditor general of Canada, to Yukon Party Leader Currie Dixon, who chairs the public accounts standing committee.
The audit was planned to be presented to the Yukon Legislative Assembly during the fall 2025 sitting.
Prompted by the News story about the audit being on hold, Yukon Party Watson Lake MLA Patti McLeod asked the premier in the legislature on Nov. 20 if federal authorities like the Canada Border Services Agency and Canadian Security Intelligence Service are involved in the investigation or “seized documents” from the department in addition to the RCMP.
Pillai responded that he’s only aware of discussions with RCMP.
He gave an update on the Yukon Nominee Program in the House.
Between January and October, more than 330 applicants were nominated, as more applications are being processed, per the premier. There’s a total of 430 spots allocated in 2024.
While Pillai has pushed for more spots to be allocated by the federal government in 2025, he doesn’t seem convinced at this point.
“We're thinking there may be a reduction next year, so we're keeping an eye on that,” he said.
Contact Dana Hatherly at dana.hatherly@yukon-news.com
