As of September 26th, 2024, Canadian authority will no longer run Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs) for the Low-Wage stream of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) in most Census Metropolitan Regions.
Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) will not run Labor Market Impact Assessments in the low-wage stream in Census Metropolitan Areas with an unemployment percentage of 6 percent or more. No additional information has been released concerning which cities will be affected.
The unit states that exclusions will be carried out for seasonal and non-seasonal employment in food security industries such as primary agriculture, food processing, fish processing, and building and healthcare.
Again, employers will be allowed to employ up to 10 percent of their total labor force via the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, and the highest term of job for employees employed via the Low-Wage stream will be decreased to 12 months from 24 months.
The Minister for Employment, Workforce Development, and Official Languages, Randy Boissonnault, states that Canada has heavily depended on the scheme.
“The TFWP was formed to deal with labor market depletions when eligible Canadians could not complete those positions. We understand that more Canadian citizens are eligible to complete vacant roles. The modifications we are carrying out today will prioritize Canadian employees and ensure Canadians can trust the program is satisfying the requirements of our economy.
According to the Labour Force Survey, Canada’s unemployment rate has increased since April 2023. The present percentage of unemployment remained at 6.4 in June 2024, representing 1.4 million unemployed individuals.
The Minister stated that these new limitations will help eliminate Temporary Foreign Worker Program mismanagement and scams. He also pointed out that Canadian employers must maintain and upskill present workers to ensure they can adapt to workplace requests in the future.
Over the next three months, ESDC will check the high-wage stream of the temporary foreign worker program. The Ministry states that this could lead to modifications to existing Labour Market Impact Assessment requests for which roles still need to be completed, to industrial exclusions, or rejecting to process other Labour Market Impact Assessment requests, which include rural regions.
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The Temporary Foreign Worker Program is a famous route for new immigrants seeking employment skills in Canada. Employers desiring to use the program must submit an LMIA to Employment and Social Development Canada to specify whether employing an international citizen will have a favorable, neutral, or negative effect on Canada’s workforce and finances.
Under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, there are two streams: Low-Wage and High-Wage. Low-wage roles are those reimbursed less than the median regional per-hour income.
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Current Modifications To The Temporary Worker Levels In Montreal
On August 20th, 2024, Quebec Premier Francois Legault announced temporary foreign worker limitations for the administrative province of Montreal.
Beginning on September 3rd, the Quebec regional and the national Canadian authorities will suspend the processing of LMIA requests for some professions in Montreal within the Low-Wage stream of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, which is people earning an hourly income lower than the Quebec median hourly income.
The policy aligns with ESDC’s current statement, with specific employees who satisfy profession, location, and income measures or who present an LMIA before September 3rd, 2024, excluded from these modifications. This suspension is anticipated to remain for six months.
Aspect Of A Wider Plan
These modifications to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program come at a time when the Canadian authority is focusing more on the program and temporary residents who are people with work or study permits, visitor visas, or electronic Travel Authorization levels in the nation.
In recent months, the Minister of Employment and Minister for Immigration have publicly called out abusive employers within the Temporary Foreign Worker Program for taking the benefit of temporary foreign employees and neglecting Canadian employees in favor of inexpensive labor.
In their first joint statement on the issue in March, the Minister for Immigration revealed the historic inclusion of temporary resident levels within the yearly immigration levels plan to adequately manage this population’s stresses on Canadian social services and infrastructure. Aligning with this objective, Canada also stated that a study permit restriction on international students was meant to be in place until 2026.
