Temporary Foreign Worker Program: From September 26, 2024, onwards, the Canadian government will stop conducting Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs) for the Low-Wage stream of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) in some census metropolitan areas (CMAs).
The government of Canada’s Employment and Social Development (ESDC) will not handle LMIAs in the Low-Wage stream in CMAs where the jobless rate is 6% or higher. There is still no more information available about which cities will be affected.
The department says there will be exceptions for seasonal and non-seasonal jobs in construction, healthcare, and food security areas (primary agriculture, food processing, and fish processing).
The maximum length of employment for workers hired through the Low-Wage stream will be reduced to one year, and businesses will be allowed to hire up to 10% of their total workforce through the TFWP.
Randy Boissonnault, Canada’s Minister of Employment, Workforce Development, and Official Languages, says, “The country has been leaning too much on the program.”
“It was the goal of the Temporary Foreign Worker program to help fill jobs when suitable Canadians couldn’t be found. We know right now that there are more skilled Canadians than jobs that are open.“
“With the changes we’re making today, Canadian workers will come first, and people will be able to trust that the program is meeting the needs of our economy.”
The Labour Force Survey shows Canada’s jobless rate has been slowly increasing since April 2023. The unemployment rate is 6.4% (as of June 2024). That’s 1.4 million people who don’t have jobs.
The Minister says these new rules will help “eliminate TFWP fraud and abuse.” He also says that Canadian employers need to retrain and improve the skills of their present workers to ensure their ability to handle changes in the future.
ESDC will review the TFWP’s High-Wage stream for the next 90 days. The Ministry says this could mean changing LMIA applications for open jobs that haven’t been filled yet, making exceptions for certain industries, or not processing other LMIA applications, even those for rural areas.
People who are new to Canada and want to get job experience often use the TFWP. Employers who want to use the program must fill out an LMIA and send it to ESDC. This helps ESDC determine whether hiring a foreign worker will benefit Canada’s economy and workforce.
The TFWP has two streams: Low-Wage and High-Wage. Low-wage jobs pay less than the average hourly wage in the province.
Recent changes to the number of temporary employees in Montreal
The premier of Quebec, François Legault, stated on August 20, 2024, that there would be temporary limits on foreign workers in the “administrative region” of Montreal.
Starting September 3, 2024, both the provincial government of Quebec and the federal government of Canada will stop processing LMIA applications for some jobs in Montreal in the Low-Wage stream of the TFWP (paying less than the median hourly wage in Quebec).
The policy is the same as what ESDC announced today. Some workers will not have to follow these changes if they meet certain job, location, or wage requirements or send an LMIA before September 3, 2024. This ban is likely to last for six months.
As part of a bigger plan of Temporary Foreign Worker Program
The Canadian government is paying more attention to the TFWP and the number of temporary residents (people with a work or study permit or a visitor visa or electronic travel authorization (eTA)) in the country as a whole at the same time.
In the past few months, both Employment Minister Boissonnault and Immigration Minister Marc Miller have spoken out against abusive companies in the TFWP that take advantage of temporary foreign workers and ignore Canadian workers in favour of cheaper labour. They have done this both together and separately.
In March, they gave their first joint speech on the subject. During that speech, Immigration Minister Miller also announced the first-ever inclusion of temporary resident levels in the annual Immigration Levels Plan.
This is to control better this population’s strains on Canadian infrastructure and social services. Canada also said it would limit the number of study permits it gives foreign students until 2026. This was done to help reach the goal.
