Changes to the Yukon worker nominee program are on hold after an outcry from employers, who say it will harm people's ability to immigrate to the Yukon.

"We have to get in line with other jurisdictions, but we have some flexibility,” Shawn Kitchen, director of labour market programs and services at the Department Education, said recently of Canada's response to the Yukon's objection to one of the new policies.

Last month, the territory announced it was changing the language and financial requirements for people coming to Canada under the foreign worker program as of Jan. 1, 2011.

People coming to work in the service industry will now have to pass a French or English language test before their application is accepted, a requirement which both the government and employers are happy with.

"It's a tightening-up of the program, which is good,” said Rick Karp, president of the Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce and an employer who hires through the program.

"It's really important in terms of health and safety of the nominees when they come to the country.

"If there's some sort of crisis in the workplace, being able to speak the language makes a huge difference. It also means people know their rights and understand their responsibilities.”

But the change that Karp and many of the employers he represents object to is a new requirement that immigrants coming to Canada under the program must have $10,000 in a Canadian bank before they will be considered.

That is an enormous sum for a person from the Philippines, the home country of 65 to 70 per cent of the Yukon's 400-odd nominees, according to Karp.

Ten thousand dollars represent several years' income for someone in the Philippines working in a job comparable to the ones currently being filled in the Yukon, namely those in the service or "critical impact” sector.

In the case of people who already have family here who are earning Canadian dollars, Karp said it is still difficult to put that money together because any extra income is generally wired back to the Philippines.

"How is a (potential) critical impact worker whose family is sending money home, going to meet that requirement?” he asked.

Previously, nominees could prove their financial stability with an "affidavit of support” from their employer.

That document would say they have work and that they would have financial support in the event the job doesn't work out.

But both the federal government and the territorial Department of Justice have found fault with that method, Kitchen said.

The Canadian government has simply said that having the money shows the nominees' "longer-term ability to succeed in Canada,” Kitchen said.

After doing a review of the program, the Department of Justice has also questioned the affidavit's legal validity.

"We would have a hard time trying to enforce it on a sponsor,” Kitchen said.

His department has had "conversations” with some employers regarding their responsibility to nominees, but has never gone to court to enforce an affidavit, he added.

The change to the financial requirements is "entirely driven by Canada,” Kitchen said.

"Based on our program reviews and our legal reviews, we may have made changes to the language requirements,” Kitchen said of the Yukon's position, "but I don't know that we would have made changes to the financial requirements.”

Karp said he planned to write a letter to the federal government on behalf of Whitehorse employers, outlining their objection to the $10,000 hurdle.

The Department of Education has also been having discussions with Canada about a compromise.

"We went back to (Citizenship and Immigration Canada) about the affidavit of support and they said it still had to go, but in terms of the $10,000 that there was flexibility in that amount and establishing that financial security,” Kitchen said.

Until the territory and Canada can come to a mutually agreeable new policy, the affidavit will stand, he said.