The Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs) that are being processed for job offers with hourly earnings less than $27.47 CAD (the median hourly salary in Quebec) will no longer be processed for candidates in Montréal as of September 3. This legislation has been approved by the Canadian federal government and is anticipated to be in effect for the next six months.
Premier François Legault of Quebec and Immigration Minister Christine Fréchette of Quebec announced the suspension this morning with the goal of controlling the number of temporary residents in the province and preserving the integrity of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP).
Note: People who are in Canada temporarily on a visitor visa, work or study permit, or electronic travel authorization (eTA) are referred to as temporary residents.
These changes do not apply to:
- Jobs in a place of work outside of the economic region of Montréal*;
- Jobs with an offered wage equal to or higher than the current median wage in Quebec ($27.47 CAD);
- LMIA applications received before the 3rd of September 2024;
- Employers applying for LMIAs in certain industry groups, as described by the North American Industry Classification (NAICS), including:
- Agriculture;
- Construction;
- Food processing;
- Education; and
- Health and social services sectors.
*The administrative region of Montréal includes the municipalities of:
- Baie-d’Urfé;
- Beaconsfield;
- Côte-Saint-Luc;
- Dollard-des-Ormeaux;
- Dorval;
- Hampstead;
- Kirkland;
- L’Île-Dorval;
- Montréal;
- Montréal East;
- Montréal West;
- Mount Royal;
- Pointe-Claire;
- Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue;
- Senneville; and
- Westmount.
The federal government says it will closely monitor this policy as it continues to make decisions about the future of the TFWP.
TFWP under attention recently in Canada
Canada’s federal program known as the TFWP allows firms to hire foreign workers to assist fill critical labor shortages that cannot be filled domestically. An LMIA is required in order to hire a foreign worker through this stream.
Following comments made by Canada’s Ministers of Immigration and Employment, the program has recently come under investigation.
Most notably, on August 6th, Randy Boissonnault, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development, and Official Languages, unveiled a series of new initiatives aimed at protecting the TFWP’s integrity, with a focus on the program’s low-wage stream.
Boissonnault has previously cited the danger of employers becoming addicted to cheap foreign labour, and emphasized that the TFWP is not meant to circumvent the hiring of Canadian workers in jobs and industries where they are available. He further noted that the low-wage stream of the TFWP was a potential vehicle to artificially depress wages in Canada and stated that the ministry would consider refusing to process LMIA applications under the stream altogether.
These sentiments were echoed by Immigration Minister Marc Miller, in recent comments to news agency Reuters.
A component of a larger set of actions
The TFWP is being modified at the same time that Canada is reevaluating its temporary immigration policies. For instance, Minister Miller declared in March of this year that Canada will be adding levels for temporary residents to the yearly immigration levels plan.
To help address this, the IRCC has limited the number of study licenses that can be issued to some overseas students to two years, and they have instituted a Provincial Attestation Letter (PAL) system.
In addition to these modifications, Miller has declared his desire to seek new rules pertaining to the granting of Post-Graduation Work Permits (PGWPs) and to increase the number of “domestic draws” aimed at identifying temporary residents who are currently in Canada for permanent residence (PR).