Further to Immigration Canada's recent drastic changes to the Intra-Company Transferee program, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) has announced further sweeping changes to its Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP).

ESDC's primary role is the determination of the availability of Canadian workers before allowing a company to 'sponsor' a foreign worker. This process, previously known as a Labour Market Opinion (LMO), will now be called a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA).

Effective immediately, the following new criteria and procedures for LMIA determination will apply:

GENERALLY

  • The primary test for criteria for assessing labour market conditions will be wage in each province or territory. (Previously, the primary criteria was the determination of the job's National Occupational Classification (NOC) category.)
  • Occupations with salaries below the median provincial wage will be considered 'low wage'; those at or above the median wage will be considered 'high-wage'. Note that this is different from the requirement to pay prevailing wage for a particular occupation, which is still applicable.
  • In the following cases, ESDC promises a 10-business day service standard:
    • The highest demand occupations,
    • The highest-paid occupations (top 10%), and
    • Short-duration work periods (120 days or less).
  • LMIA approvals will allow for a maximum 1 year work permit period.
  • Enforcement measures will be enhanced.
    • 1 in 4 employers can now expect to be inspected each year.
    • Fines will be increased to a new maximum of $100,000 depending on the offence.
  • Fees will increase from $275 to $1000 per position requested.

HIGH-WAGE OCCUPATIONS

  • Employers seeking to hire high-wage foreign workers will be required to submit a transition plan showing how they will increase efforts to hire Canadians, including the use of higher wages, investments in training, and more active recruitment efforts.
  • Web-based application will now be allowed in the high-wage category.

LOW-WAGE OCCUPATIONS

  • Some other specific considerations within the program vis-à-vis low-wage occupations are:
    • Where an employer has 10 or more employees (but subject to some exceptions and a transition period), not more than 10% of its workforce, by total hours worked per work site, can consist of low-wage temporary foreign workers.
    • LMIA applications for occupations with little or no education required, in the Accommodation, Food Service and Retail Trade sectors will be refused in areas where unemployment rates are at or above 6%.

SUMMARY

The literally overnight implementation of these new measures means that much greater analysis and consideration is still required. Though most of the issues addressed above seem to make the system more difficult in terms of seeking necessary approval, there are some possible silver linings as well, and the matter must be looked at in its totality. General governmental information about the changes can be found at http://www.esdc.gc.ca/eng/jobs/foreign_workers/reform/tables.shtml#h2.3.

The information in this article is for general purposes only, and not intended as legal advice for any particular situation.