With the government’s focus on ‘Canadians First’ for Canadian jobs, the requirements to hire temporary foreign workers were revamped to make the hiring of foreign workers, and in particular low-skilled/low-wage foreign workers, more difficult for employers.
For employers that utilise labour market opinions (now known as labour market impact assessments — LMIAs), one of the biggest changes is the increased application fee that is now CAD1,000 (£547) per position (up from CAD275) with the potential of an additional CAD100 ‘privilege fee’ to be added. For those employers wishing to employ ‘high-skilled/high-wage’ foreign workers, a transition plan will need to be submitted with LMIA applications. For those employers wishing to hire ‘low-skilled/low-wage’ foreign workers, the ability to hire foreign workers will be tied to the unemployment rate in the region they wish to hire the foreign