In order to help employers address critical labor shortages through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), the Canadian Minister of Employment, Workforce Development, and Official Languages, Minister Randy Boissonnault, has unveiled modifications to the Temporary Foreign Workforce Solutions Road Map.
This is due to the fact that the country’s unemployment rate held unchanged at 5.5% in September despite record levels of immigration, underscoring the continued need for the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), which has seen an increase of about 40% over the same month previous year.
Nairametrics discovered that the Road Map for Temporary Foreign Workforce Solutions is still in progress, with the goal of improving businesses’ ability to modify the TFWP in response to changes in the labor market and economic conditions in Canada.
The following are some of the changes that the Minister has announced:
- Employers in seven selected sectors (Food Manufacturing, Wood Product Manufacturing, Furniture, and Related Product Manufacturing, Accommodation and Food Services, Construction, Hospitals, and Nursing and Residential Care Facilities) may continue to hire up to 30% of their workforce in low-wage positions through the TFWP;
- For positions paid at or below the provincial or territorial minimum wage, a maximum employment duration of two years will be in effect.
- The validity of Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs) will be reduced from the previous maximum of 18 months to a maximum of 12 months.
- Starting from January 1st, 2024, employers will be obligated to conduct annual reviews of their temporary foreign workers’ wages to ensure they align with prevailing wage rates for their specific occupation and work region.
With the flexibility to adjust to the changing labor market and economic situations, these extended measures are set to be in effect until August 30, 2024.
What is the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP)?
Designed to solve domestic labor shortages through immigration, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) oversees the TFWP, one of Canada’s two main work permit programs.
This program allows Canadian businesses to hire foreign workers for both high- and low-wage positions. Among its many streams are those for agricultural, live-in caregivers, and high-wage foreign workers.
It is mandatory for businesses to go through a Labor Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) procedure in order to determine if a Canadian citizen or permanent resident could have been employed for the same position.
