Canada’s Temporary Foreign Workers -TFWP- in Numbers

Posted on September 17, 2016 by CICS Immigration Team

In 2014, more than 360,000 people had their temporary work permit take effect, a 64 per cent increase compared with 2004. An additional 212,000 international students had their study permit take effect, with many of them eligible to work in Canada temporarily.

Ahead of a major parliamentary committee report on the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) set for release this month, a new report by Conference Board of Canada’s National Immigration Centre provides a comprehensive overview of the state of Canada’s foreign worker population.

The report, A Primer on Canada’s Foreign Workers, suggests that while Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program population has declined in recent years, Canada’s overall foreign worker population is rising and may continue to increase.

“Workers entering Canada under the TFWP make up only a slice of Canada’s diverse foreign worker population, which includes International Mobility Program workers, international students, those awaiting permanent residence in Canada, and refugee claimants. All these individuals are able to work in Canada on a temporary basis,” said Michael Bloom, Vice-President, Industry and Business Strategy, The Conference Board of Canada. “Ensuring that foreign worker programs benefit Canada is a matter of reconciling the needs of federal, provincial, and territorial governments, industry, and Canadians and foreign workers.”

Highlights

In 2014, more than 360,000 people had their temporary work permit take effect, a 64 per cent increase compared with 2004. An additional 212,000 international students had their study permit take effect, with many of them eligible to work in Canada temporarily.
The TFWP accounted for one-quarter of individuals who were granted a temporary work permit in 2014.
Canada could see its foreign worker population continue to rise as a result of more international students entering the country and recently negotiated free trade agreements.

In 2014, more than 360,000 people had their temporary work permit take effect, a 64 per cent increase compared with 2004. Most temporary work permits signed between 2004 and 2014 were exempt from a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA), the test used by the federal government to determine what effect the hiring of a foreign national might have on the Canadian labour market. The number of TFWP permits signed has declined over the past two years likely due to a combination of Canada’s economic conditions and TFWP policy reforms.

TFWP accounted for only 26 per cent of individuals who were granted a temporary work permit in 2014. Despite possible reforms to the TFWP, Canada could still see its overall foreign worker population increase in the future due to rising levels of international students arriving to Canada. International students make up a significant share of foreign workers eligible to participate in the Canadian labour market. In 2014, close to 212,000 international students had their study permit signed compared with just over 126,000 in 2004. This number could increase further as federal, provincial, and territorial governments encourage more foreign nationals to study in Canada.

Recently negotiated free trade agreements by Canada could also up the number of foreign nationals eligible to work in Canada under the International Mobility Program, which does not have LMIA requirements. The Canada and European Union (EU) Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) both contain labour mobility provisions. If ratified, they could result in more Canadians working abroad, and more foreign workers arriving to Canada.

“Balance is the key to a well-designed and well-executed TFWP,” said Dr. Bloom. “The government has a legitimate role to monitor the TFWP to ensure domestic workers are given priority in the labour market. Employers across Canada would like enough flexibility to fill their temporary employment needs when domestic workers are unavailable to do the job. The Canadian public wants assurance that foreign workers are supplementing, rather than supplanting domestic workers. And protections must be in place to ensure temporary foreign workers are treated fairly by employers.”

The report also highlights the need for more complete information on the Canadian labour market to support evidence-based policy decisions on Canada’s foreign worker programs. While certain sectors, such as agriculture, face genuine labour shortages, as shown by federal government data, and require TFWs to fill labour market vacancies, it is difficult to determine whether other sectors are facing similar labour shortages due to limitations in Canada’s labour market data.

Temporary Foreign Worker Program Applications Fall By 74%

Posted on September 22, 2014 by CICS Immigration Team

Following the big changes to the Canadian Foreign Worker Program, the month of August, 2014 saw a drop by nearly three quarters on the same month in 2012 in the number of applications made to hire temporary foreign workers.

Speaking during Question Period in the House of Commons in Ottawa, Employment Minister Jason Kenney stated that “We announced a fundamental sweep of reforms to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program earlier this year to ensure that it is used as a last and limited resort and that Canadians always come first in the workforce.

Kenney Temporary Foreign Program

“Since those reforms were announced we’ve seen a 75-per-cent reduction in the number of applications in temporary foreign workers on the part of employers,” added Mr. Kenney, who used to hold the Citizenship and Immigration portfolio within the Government of Canada.

New rules for hiring temporary foreign workers introduced in June make it more difficult for employers to hire internationally, requiring them to meet strict criteria to ensure Canadians are first in line for jobs. It has also seen a large increase in the application fee, from 0 to $1000 per application for every employee.

Immigration Will Have Large Effect On Population Changes, Says Statistics Canada

Statistics Canada, the federal agency assigned to produce statistics to better understand Canada, has released its latest population projections. It is projected that immigration will heavily influence the makeup of the country over the coming decades.

Alberta, for example, will most likely overtake British Columbia as the third most populace province by 2038, reaching between 5.6 million and 6.8 million. Its current population is just over 4 million. A young workforce attracted to the province by a strong economy will result in Alberta continuing to have the lowest proportion of seniors in the country.

Quebec’s population will also increase, mostly due to immigration, but its share of the Canadian population will reduce in size as the populations of other provinces increase more rapidly.

The population of Ontario is expected to increase to between 14.8 million and 18.3 million by 2038. Ontario would remain the most populous province according to all scenarios. In all scenarios, immigration would remain the key driver of Ontario’s population growth.

Most scenarios show Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick all losing population over the next 25 years. This is due to their relatively older age structure, their small share of Canadian immigration, and the tendency of many younger members of their Canadian-born populations to seek work in other provinces.

The overall population of Canada is projected to be between 39 million and 48 million by 2038.

Temporary Foreign Worker Program Overhaul: What Workers Need to Know

Posted on August 4, 2014 by CICS Immigration Team

On June 20, 2014, the Government of Canada announced major changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). These changes have significant repercussions for Canadian employers across the country as well as current and future foreign workers.
The recent TFWP overhaul affects Canadian employers. Of course, many of these changes also have a significant impact on how foreign workers obtain their work permits, as well as what will happen during and after arrival in Canada.
Following is detail of the most important changes and what they mean for current and future foreign workers in Canada.

Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs)

In most cases, Canadian employers need to obtain government approval before hiring a foreign worker. This approval comes in the form of a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA), formerly known as a Labour Market Opinion (LMO).
In the eyes of the government, the responsibility for securing an LMIA rests solely with the employer in Canada. The LMIA process assesses whether the employer is eligible to hire from abroad.
If you are a foreign worker who has received a job offer in Canada, especially from a small or medium sized employer, you should be prepared for the employer to possibly question whether they want to go through this process at all.

LMIA-Based Work Permit Restrictions

In addition to increased LMIA requirements, there are now new time limits placed on work permits that require LMIAs. Individuals whose Canadian job offers are considered ‘low-wage’ under the new LMIA system (that is, individuals who will be paid less than the provincial median wage) will be issued work permits valid for no longer than one year in length. In addition, low-wage applications that were submitted before June 20, 2014 will not be processed. They will be returned with a refund of government processing fees. Employers are welcome to re-apply following the new rules for low-wage LMIAs.
The government has also implied that the maximum work permit length for ‘high-wage’ workers, who are paid a salary that meets or exceeds provincial median wages, will also be reduced. It has been reported that the maximum length will be cut to two years, although this has yet to be formally implemented.
Options remain in place to renew work permits that are set to expire, as well as to transition from temporary worker status to permanent resident status.
Moratorium Lifted for Food Service Work Permits
On April 24, 2014, the government announced a moratorium on LMIA and work permit issuances for certain occupations in the food services sector. As ofJune 20, this moratorium has been lifted and workers in the food sector may once again apply for work authorization.

LMIA-Exempt Work Permits

Work permits that do not require LMIA approval are now known as ‘International Mobility Programs’.
Certain work permits are LMIA-exempt but remain tied to a specific employer. These sorts of permits most commonly pertain to individuals applying under the NAFTA Program and the Intra-Company Transfer Program.
Currently, individuals are able to apply for their LMIA-exempt work permit once they obtain a job offer from a Canadian employer. In the future (date unknown), Canadian employers will be required to submit their job offers for approval to Citizenship and Immigration Canada before the foreign worker can apply for the work permit. Employers will be required to pay a $230 processing fee to have their job offer evaluated.
The foreign worker must still pay the standard $155 work permit application fee when submitting an application.

Open Work Permit Fees

In the future (date unknown), recipients of Open Work Permits will be required to pay a $100 ‘privilege fee’ in addition to the standard application fee of $155. Individuals who are eligible for open work permits include the spouses of foreign workers and students in Canada as well as participants in certain work exchange programs.
All new fees will help to cover government services such as work permit processing and employer compliance inspections.

Working in Canada Today

It is important to note that individuals who are currently in Canada on a work permit will not see any changes made to their current permits. However, any requests to renew or extend their work permits will be subject to the new rules.

Big changes to the Canadian Foreign Worker Program – In Detail

Posted on July 3, 2014 by CICS Immigration Team

Improving Clarity, Transparency and Accountability of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program

To offer greater clarity and transparency, the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) is being re-organized into two distinct programs (TFWP and IMP). This will reduce confusion and better reflect the major differences between the various streams.

On Friday, June 20, 2014 a significant overhaul of the Temporary Foreign Workers Program was announced at a lengthy media conference with both Minister of Employment and Social Development Jason Kenney and CIC Minister Chris Alexander presiding.

Background to Changes

The Ministers’ announcements come after what has been a long and grueling controversy surrounding the Program and its administration. In particular, there have been noted employers in the news as of late whose employment practices have been called into question. Stories of replacing Canadian workers with temporary foreign workers to employer abuses in terms of promises of wages and accommodation for their foreign workers have plagued the evening news.

With the new changes that have been made, the Government hopes to strike the right balance between ensuring that the TFWP is flexible enough to respond to Canada’s labour shortages while also protecting the rights of both temporary foreign workers and Canadian citizens.

TFWP Going Forward

The TFWP will now refer to only those streams under which foreign workers enter Canada at the request of employers following approval through a new Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA). The new International Mobility Programs (IMP) will include those streams in which foreign nationals are not subject to an LMIA, and whose primary objective is to advance Canada’s broad economic and cultural national interest, rather than filling particular jobs. These new categories will improve accountability, with Employment and Social Development Canada being the lead department for the TFWP, and Citizenship and Immigration Canada the lead department for the IMP.

Temporary Foreign Worker Program Objective: Last resort for employers to fill jobs for which qualified Canadians are not available	International Mobility Programs Objective: To advance Canada’s broad economic and cultural national interest
Based on employer demand to fill specific jobs	Not based on employer demand
Unilateral and discretionary	Base largely on multilateral/bilateral agreements with other countries (e.g. NAFTA, GATS)
Employer must pass Labour Market Impact Assessment (formerly LMO)	No Labour Market Impact Assessment required
Lead department ESDC	Lead department CIC
No reciprocity	Based largely on reciprocity
Employer-specific work permits (TFWs tied to one employer)	Generally open permits (participants have greater mobility)
Majority are low-skilled (e.g. farm workers)	Majority are high skill / high wage
Last and limited resort because no Canadians are available	Workers & reciprocity are deemed to be in the national economic and cultural interest
Main source countries are developing countries	Main source countries are highly developed

In the interest of greater transparency and accountability, data for the TFWP and IMP have been re-organized so that statistics on the two distinct programs can be accurately tracked going back 10 years. Of the 221,273 foreign nationals entering Canada in 2013, 62 percent (137,533) came in under the IMP, the other 38 percent, or (83,740), came in under the TFWP.

Using Wage Instead of National Occupation Codes

The Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) will now be administered based on wage instead of the National Occupational Classification (NOC). The Government has found that Wage is a more objective and accurate reflection of skill level and labour need in a given area. Temporary foreign workers being paid under the provincial/territorial median wage will be considered low-wage, while those being paid at or above will be considered high-wage.

Median Hourly Wages by Province/Territory

Province/Territory	Wage ($/hr)
Newfoundland and Labrador	$ 20.19
Prince Edward Island	$ 17.26
Nova Scotia	$ 18.00
New Brunswick	$ 17.79
Quebec	$ 20.00
Ontario	$ 21.00
Manitoba	$ 19.00
Saskatchewan	$ 21.63
Alberta	$ 24.23
British Columbia	$ 21.79
Yukon	$ 27.93
Northwest Territories	$ 32.53
Nunavut	$ 29.96

Source: Labour Force Survey, 2013

The primary categories under the new TFWP

Under the new TFWP, there will be a priority focus on the following occupational streams:

High-wage:positions at or above the provincial/territorial median wage; examples of high-wage occupations include managerial, scientific, professional and technical positions as well as the skilled trades.

Low-wage:positions below the provincial/territorial median wage; examples of low-wage occupations include general labourers, food counter attendants, and sales and service personnel.

Primary Agricultural Stream: includes positions related to on-farm primary agriculture such as general farm workers, nursery and greenhouse workers, feed lot workers and harvesting labourers, including under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program, which enables the entry of foreign workers from Mexico and a number of Caribbean countries to meet the temporary, seasonal needs of agricultural producers.

Highest-demand, highest-paid or shortest-duration: Labour Market Impact Assessments for in-demand occupations (skilled trades), highly paid occupations (top 10%) or short-duration (120 days or less) entries will be provided within a 10 business day service standard. As for all requests to hire temporary foreign workers, LMIAs would only be granted after a rigorous review of all of the elements of the employer’s application in each of these cases.

Live-in Caregiver Program: no change.

New Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) Snapshot

The labour market test that allows employers to bring temporary foreign workers to Canada is being transformed from a Labour Market Opinion (LMO) to a new Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA), a process that is more comprehensive and rigorous. Employers must provide additional information, including the number of Canadians that applied for their available job, the number of Canadians the employer interviewed, and explain why those Canadians were not hired. Employers must now also attest they are aware of the rule that Canadians cannot be laid-off or have their hours reduced at a worksite that employs temporary foreign workers.

New and better sources of labour market information will be used to determine if there are Canadians who could fill these positions.

LMIAs are conducted and processed by Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC). ESDC will refuse to process applications when there are concerns that temporary foreign workers may or will have a significant negative effect on the Canadian labour market.

Current numbers and statistics show that the TFWP is no longer being used as it was intended to be used — as a last and limited resort to allow employers to bring foreign workers to Canada on a temporary basis to fill jobs for which qualified Canadians are not available. The reforms are being implemented to end the growing practice of employers building their business model on access to the TFWP.

Accordingly, the Government of Canada is introducing a cap to limit the proportion of low-wage temporary foreign workers that a business can employ. The cap will significantly restrict access to the TFWP, while ensuring that Canadians are always considered first for available jobs, reducing employer reliance on the program and increasing wages offered to Canadians. It is expected that this measure alone will nearly cut in half the number of low-wage temporary foreign workers once fully implemented.

Employers with 10 or more employees will be subject to a cap of 10 percent on the proportion of their workforce that can consist of low-wage temporary foreign workers. This cap will be applied per worksite of an employer and is based on total hours worked at that worksite. To provide employers time to transition and adjust to this new cap, it will be phased in over the next couple of years.

Effective immediately, employers that are applying for a new LMIA will be limited at 30 percent or frozen at their current level, whichever is lower. This transition measure will be further reduced to 20 percent beginning July 1, 2015 and reduced again to 10 percent on July 1, 2016. The Government may consider lowering the cap further in the future. Temporary foreign workers currently working at work sites over the cap will be allowed to continue working at those sites until their existing work permits expire.

The caps will ensures that large employers with multiple locations cannot be over their limit for low-wage temporary foreign workers at any one of their locations. For example, a large employer with an overall national workforce comprised of 5 percent temporary foreign workers cannot justify bringing in larger volumes of foreign workers at specific locations and having the temporary foreign worker staff at those locations exceed the cap.

The cap sends an important message—temporary foreign workers cannot be used as a business model and employers must do more to recruit, hire and train Canadians. This measure will help drive down the overall number of low-wage temporary foreign workers in Canada and end the distortion in the labour market caused by their prevalence in some sectors and regions.

Refusing Applications in Areas of High Unemployment

Effective immediately, the Government will begin the process of refusal of certain Labour Market Impact Assessment applications in the Accommodation, Food Services and Retail Trade sectors. Specifically, any applications for positions that require little or no education or training will not be processed in economic regions with an unemployment rate at or above 6%.

Reducing the Duration of Work Permits set out in Labour Market Impact Assessments

Effective immediately, the duration of work permits set out in Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs) will be limited to a maximum of one year for all low-wage positions, rather than the 2 year duration that existed previously. Employers of low-wage temporary foreign workers must reapply every year for an LMIA, better-accommodating for changes in labour market conditions that might have occurred.

Reducing the Length of Time a Temporary Foreign Worker can Work in Canada

The TFWP is to be used as a last and limited resort, and to encourage employers to make even greater efforts to ensure foreign workers are coming in on a truly temporary basis and that Employers are encouraged to hire and train Canadian workers before seeking temporary foreign workers. In order to facilitate this transition, the Government will reduce how long a temporary foreign worker in the low-wage stream can work in Canada. This measure will not apply to temporary foreign workers currently in Canada on valid work permits.

Changing the Provincial/Territorial Temporary Foreign Worker Annexes

Five provincial/territorial governments (Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Nova Scotia and Yukon) currently have annexes to their immigration agreements with the Government that establish Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) exemptions in their jurisdiction. In these cases, the provinces and territories may propose LMIA exemptions for certain occupations and pilot projects involving exemptions to the LMIA process can be initiated.

Transition Plans for High-Wage Positions

Employers who want to hire temporary foreign workers in high-wage occupations will be required (with limited exceptions) to submit transition plans with their Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) application to ensure that they are taking steps to reduce their reliance on temporary foreign workers over time. This underscores the purpose of the program — which is to operate as a last and limited resort to address immediate labour needs on a temporary basis when qualified Canadians are not available.

Highest-Demand, Highest-Paid and Shortest-Duration Occupations

LMIAs for highest-demand occupations (skilled trades), highest-paid (top 10 percent) occupations or short-duration work periods (120 days or less) will now be provided within a 10-business-day service standard. As is the case for all requests to hire temporary foreign workers, LMIAs would only be granted after a rigorous review of all of the elements of the employer’s application in each of these cases. This service standard will be met by processing these applications first, not by reducing the thoroughness of these LMIAs.

Labour Market Impact Assessment Fee of $1,000

As with the proposed changes and the more rigorous measures to be implemented in the new Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), this will substantially increase the cost of delivering the program. The costs for administering the TFWP, including all of the reforms outlined above, will be borne entirely by employers who use the program, and not by Canadian citizens and tax payers. As a result, the LMIA fee is increasing from $275 to $1,000 for every temporary foreign worker position requested by an employer.

The following chart illustrates the increase of the fee over the past few years:

Year	Assessment Fee
1973 – 2013	$0
July 2013	$275
June 2014	$1,000

The fee will be evaluated on an ongoing basis, and necessary adjustments will be made to ensure that it continues to fully cover the costs of the TFWP.

Additionally, the Ministry of Employment and Social Development will be seeking the authority to impose an estimated $100 privilege fee on employers applying for LMIAs to offset the costs of Government of Canada investments in skills and job training.

Better and More Labour Market Information

The new Labour Market Impact Assessment will be made more effective with the introduction of more and better labour market information. As part of this structure, a new enhanced Job Matching Service will allow Canadians to apply directly through the Canada Job Bank for jobs that match their skills and experience. As employers applying for temporary foreign workers must post their jobs on the Job Bank website, the new Job Matching Service will be able to match unemployed Canadians with employers offering available jobs that match their skills in their region. Furthermore, program officers will be better aware of the number of potential applicants and how closely their skills align with the available job, which will allow for more rigorous assessment of LMIA applications.

Increasing the Number and Scope of Inspections

Given concerns over abuse of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), the Government is making a significant investment in its TFWP inspection regime.

Beginning in fall 2014, the Government will impose fines of up to $100,000 (depending on the severity of the offence) on employers who break the rules of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). As part of the Government’s efforts to improve the transparency and accountability of the TFWP, the Government will publicly disclose the names of employers who have been fined and the amount of that fine on the Blacklist.

In Conclusion

The changes to the TFWP serve to increase the commitment of the Canadian employer to train an already available Canadian labour force while resorting to a smaller avenue where they could hire a temporary foreign worker as a last resort, if needed, after all other avenues have been exhausted.

Employers will see that the system is set up still to facilitate a foreign worker immigration process, should it be the genuine requirement of their business. As well, there are many other streams for immigration that are available to the Employer should the TFWP not fit with their hiring goals. There still remains within the system great flexibility within the current immigration program offerings across Canada.

The temporary foreign worker program and allegations of abuse

Posted on May 26, 2014 by CICS Immigration Team

McDonalds and Tim Hortons employ over 9000 foreign workers. Their numbers are in par with the overall increase of foreign workers between 2006 to 2012. The number of approved foreign worker positions in accommodation and food services grew from 4,360 to 44,740.

Immigration Canada is once again being accused of failing to protect Canadian workers by allowing big fast food chains, such as McDonalds Canada to hire underpaid foreign workers in favour of Canadian workers. The new allegations also paint the grim reality of how the foreign worker program is also failing to uphold Canadian values and treat foreign workers at the same standard as Canadians.

In recent weeks, news of serious allegations of abuse of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, centering McDonalds Canada have surfaced. This on the heels of a year where the program was given negative publicity after a number of news came out accusing the program of failing to measure up to the standards that former Immigration Minister and now Employment Minister, Jason Kenney and the Canadian Government have repeatedly said it wants to uphold. In April of 2013, there was a public outcry over Royal Bank of Canada replacing a small group of Canadian staff with temporary foreign workers. Ottawa in turn, announced several measures intended to close loopholes in the program. They included temporarily suspending the accelerated labour market opinion process, which allowed approved employers to bring in foreign workers faster, and removing an option that allowed employers to pay foreign workers up to 15 per cent less than the average comparable wage in the region.

The Government of Canada has decided in the midst of these latest allegations, to launch an extensive investigation in order to determine the facts and decide whether or not actual abuse of the Temporary Foreign Workers Program has been committed by the Restaurant Industry and its employer participants. The Labour Market Opinions in this area and industry have therefore been suspended, and employers in question have been given notice of the pending investigation into the abuse of the Labour Market Opinion process.

This decision has taken many by surprise, including businesses as they have decried a lack of consultation and have said the move would force some employers to close shop. There are also the thousands of foreign workers whose work permits are about to expire and they are not able to apply for an extension and may be forced to leave Canada. This latest spotlight on the Temporary Foreign Worker Program has also shed light to what many see as abuse of foreign workers who receive a lower average salary than a Canadian or a permanent resident.

“I knew a shoe was going to drop, but this was both shoes. This is a far bigger reaction than what I thought,” said Dan Kelly, head of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

“In the minister’s province of Alberta many small businesses will teeter on [the brink of] survival based on this decision.”

Jason Kenney said his office will not process any new or pending labour market opinion applications in the food sector. The opinions are required before permission is granted to hire a temporary foreign worker. As well, any restaurant that has already obtained an LMO but hasn’t yet filled the position will be unable to do so.

“Abuse of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program will not be tolerated,” Kenney said in the statement.

Ian Tostenson, president of the B.C. Restaurant and Food Services Association, said he agreed the program needs review but that Kenney has overreacted. “There are a lot of small business people in British Columbia who are wondering what this means for them. It’s chaos. We would have really liked a heads up.”

Vancouver based Immigration Consultant and managing director of CICS Immigration Consulting Inc., Alex Khadempour, also agreed that a review of the program is needed. However, he believes a bigger issue needs to be looked at and talked about. “Do Canadians want to continue to go towards the direction where many foreign workers, especially in certain sectors, are being treated as second class? Not only are we seeing a declining working environment, including lower pay, but we are also seeing the Canadian government closing the doors on them becoming permanent residents.” His comment refers to the recent changes in the Canadian Experience Class, a permanent residency program, where food service supervisors where removed from the program.

Which Canadian Employers are directly affected by the moratorium?

To be affected by the moratorium, employers must meet 2 criteria.

The employer MUST be:

Classified under North American Industry Classification System 722, defined as establishments primarily engaged in preparing meals, snacks and beverages, to customer order, for immediate consumption on and off the premises. This subsector does not include food service activities that occur within establishments such as hotels, civic and social associations, amusement and recreation parks, and theatres. However, leased food-service locations in facilities such as hotels, shopping malls, airports and department stores are included.

AND

Currently applying for LMOs for occupations related to specific National Occupational Classification codes(NOC 2006). List of NOC codes occupations affected by the moratorium in the Food Services Sector (NAIC 722):

6641 Food Counter Attendants, Kitchen Helpers and Related Occupations
0631 Restaurant and Food Service Managers
6212 Food Service Supervisors
6453 Food and Beverage Servers
6611 Cashiers
6241 Chefs
6242 Cooks
6252 Bakers
0611 Sales, Marketing and Advertising Managers
0621 Retail Trade Managers
0632 Accommodation Service Managers
0651 Other Services Managers
6211 Retail Trade Supervisors
6213 Executive Housekeepers
6214 Dry Cleaning and Laundry Supervisors
6215 Cleaning Supervisors
6216 Other Service Supervisors
6221 Technical Sales Specialists – Wholesale Trade
6251 Butchers, Meat Cutters and Fishmongers – Retail and Wholesale
6411 Sales Representatives – Wholesale Trade (Non-Technical)
6421 Retail Salespersons and Sales Clerks
6451 Maîtres d’hôtel and Hosts/Hostesses
6452 Bartenders
6484 Other Personal Service Occupations
6622 Grocery Clerks and Store Shelf Stockers
6623 Other Elemental Sales Occupations
6651 Security Guards and Related Occupations
6661 Light Duty Cleaners
6662 Specialized Cleaners
6663 Janitors, Caretakers and Building Superintendents
6681 Dry Cleaning and Laundry Occupations
6682 Ironing, Pressing and Finishing Occupations
6683 Other Elemental Service Occupations

Which Temporary Foreign Workers are affected by the moratorium?

Temporary foreign workers already in Canada who have a valid work permit issued under a Food Services Sector LMO may continue working as per their present work permit conditions.

Temporary foreign workers who have been approved for a work permit by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) but have not yet arrived in Canada will not be affected. They will remain eligible for a work permit at a port of entry, if they are otherwise admissible to Canada.

Foreign nationals who have not yet had a decision made on their work permit application will be affected. Foreign nationals who submitted their work permit application prior to the suspension will be notified that their work permit application is suspended until a final decision is made on the LMO.

Foreign nationals who apply directly at a port of entry, a visa post or inland office for a work permit after their LMO has been suspended cannot be issued a work permit based on that LMO.

What happens to a person who is currently in Canada and who’s work permit from an affected occupational area is about to expire, and who was about to apply for an extension?

The LMO will have been suspended; therefore the processing of the work permit extension application will also be suspended until a final decision on the suspended LMO is made by ESDC.

When their original work permit expires, a person in this situation may have implied status if their work permit application was submitted prior to the expiry of their present work permit. This means that they will be able to remain in Canada and continue working for the same employer that appeared on their original work permit. People in this situation will continue to have implied status until a final decision is made on their work permit extension application.

Alberta Temporary Foreign Worker Pilot Extended

Posted on August 5, 2013 by CICS Immigration Team

Pipe and steamfitters are one of the occupations eligible for the Alberta pilot program for temporary foreign workers

The provincial government of Alberta has announced that the Alberta Occupation-Specific Pilot for temporary foreign workers will be extended for another year, to July 31 2014.

The pilot started in June 2011 and allows qualifying foreign nationals to receive special one or two-year work permits that allow them to work for an employer without the employer being required to have a Labour Market Opinion (LMO) from Services Canada.

This allows the temporary foreign worker to move freely between employers as long as they are working in the approved occupation.

The list of qualifying occupations for the pilot was expanded in July 2012 to include welders, heavy duty equipment mechanics, ironworkers, millwright and industrial mechanics, carpenters and estimators.

The skilled trades added were those deemed to be in high demand in Alberta’s economy, particularly in its bustling energy sector which has faced a shortage of skilled labour in recent years.

Men Outnumber Women 2-1 Among Temporary Foreign Workers in Canada

Posted on July 5, 2013 by CICS Immigration Team

Many temporary foreign workers are employed by immigrant-run businesses like the above, and data from Citizenship and Immigration Canada shows that the majority are men (CICS News)

The gender makeup of Canada’s foreign worker population is like that of foreign workers around the world, with men outnumbering women by a large margin.

The data, collected by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), shows that over 143,000 men entered the country in 2012 as temporary foreign workers (TFWs), over double the approximately 70,000 TFWs who were women.

Men, who are the primary breadwinner in most households around the world, are often driven to work abroad by pressure to provide for their families, when wages in their own country are inadequate.

A recent MacLean’s story on outgoing foreign remittance from individuals in Canada reports that the country has the highest foreign remittance rate in the world, at $667.57 per capita, suggesting that many of these TFWs are in fact sending the money they earn in Canada to family living in their country of origin.

Occupations of male and female temporary foreign workers

The CIC data also points to male and female TFWs tending to work in different types of occupations. While 75 percent of male TFWs worked in occupations that have well defined skill levels (e.g. managerial, professional, skilled and technical), only 40 percent of female TFWs did the same.

Six out of ten female TFWs were categorized as working in occupations where the skill level was not stated, which usually either means an individual is a family member of a foreign worker, or they are working in an unskilled occupation.

More women becoming permanent residents than men

Despite men outnumbering women in the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), slightly more women become permanent residents in Canada than men every year.

TFWs with skilled work experience in Canada can qualify for permanent residence through economic class immigration programs like the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) and Canadian Experience Class (CEC), however the number of men who become permanent residents through economic class programs is only slightly higher than the number of women.

This could suggest that more women apply for permanent residency from outside the country than men, making up for the larger number of men whose path to permanent residency was through the TFWP.

What puts women over the top in the total permanent residency numbers is the family class immigration programs, which grant 37 percent more women permanent residency than men, mostly as a result of more foreign women being sponsored for immigration by their Canadian spouse than foreign men.

Changes Made to Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program

Posted on April 30, 2013 by CICS Immigration Team

HRSDC Minister Diane Finley speaking in the House of Commons last September. New rules and increased fees for work permit applications were announced by Finley and Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney on Monday (Government of Canada)

Amid controversy and criticism over a series of incidents involving temporary foreign workers (TFWs) in recent months, including a story that emerged last month of Canadian workers losing their jobs to foreign workers at the Royal Canadian Bank, the federal government has announced several immediate and upcoming changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP).

These changes are:

An employer is required to guarantee to pay a TFW prevailing wages for that foreign worker to be eligible for a work permit, effective immediately. The rule allowing companies to pay TFWs 15 percent less than prevailing wages for high-skilled positions, and 5 percent less for low skilled ones has been repealed.

The Accelerated Labour Market Opinion (ALMO) has been suspended, effective immediately.

The federal government is seeking the authority to suspend a Labour Market Opinion (LMO) if new information emerges showing that it negatively affects the Canadian economy and Canadian workers, and revoke work permits that were authorized by that LMO.

Fees employers pay for work permit and LMO applications will increase so that a portion of the cost of processing them will no longer have to be paid out of general taxes.

Job requirements for positions that use TFWs can only have English or French as required languages, unless an employer receives a special exemption after having shown Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) why the foreign language is necessary for the position.

The new rules attempt to close some of the major loopholes that critics have identified in the program that they say allow Canadian companies to use foreign workers instead of available Canadian workers.

The changes were jointly announced by HRSDC Minister Diane Finley and Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney on Monday.

Furor Over Use of Temporary Foreign Workers at Canadian Bank

Posted on April 16, 2013 by CICS Immigration Team

The Royal Bank of Canada promised to find new positions for all of the Canadian workers who lost their jobs as a result of being replaced by temporary foreign workers

The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) got in trouble with the public last week when several ex-workers came forward alleging they had been replaced by temporary foreign workers.

This week, RBC apologized for the decisions that led to the use of foreign workers in place of Canadians and vowed to rectify the situation.

The incident has sparked an outpouring of long-harboured criticism for the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program, which has grown by about 300% since a decade ago, to over 300,000 temporary foreign workers currently residing in Canada.

The federal government took measures to reduce the reliance of Canadian businesses on temporary foreign workers in 2011, by creating a four year limit on the number of years that a foreign national can live in Canada cumulatively as a temporary foreign worker.

That rule change will see its first major repercussion on April 1st, 2015, as hundreds of thousands of long-time temporary foreign workers will for the first time reach their life-time limit on time they can spend in Canada, and be unable to renew their work permits.

It’s expected that Canada will see a major problem with illegal immigration, as those foreign workers over-stay their work permits and continue living and working in Canada illegally.

The objective behind the rule change was to prevent a situation where Canadian businesses use the TFW program to meet their long-term labour needs, and limit its use to what it was designed for: allowing employers to fill pressing labour shortages temporarily until a permanent Canadian solution could be found.

Illegal Immigration in Canada Expected to Surge in 2015

Posted on February 1, 2013 by CICS Immigration Team

Over 190,000 temporary foreign workers entered Canada last year. Many of those whose work permits are set to expire in April 2015 are expected to remain in Canada illegally (CICS News)

The number of people in Canada illegally is expected to increase substantially in April 2015, when a large contingent of foreign workers see their work permits expire.

Their work permits will expire on April 1st 2015 because of a rule enacted on April 1st, 2011, that created a four year limit on cumulative time a foreign national can spend in Canada as a temporary foreign worker.

The rule change was made to reduce the perceived over-dependence of Canadian employers on the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) to meet their permanent labour needs.

The number of temporary foreign workers in Canada has increased from approximately 100,000 in 2002, to over 300,000 today, which some have criticized as a subsidy for business at the expense of Canadian workers.

Setting limits on how long a temporary foreign worker can work in Canada was seen as a way to limit the use of the TFWP to its intended role: to temporarily meet labour shortages until a permanent solution could be found.

People familiar with visa and immigration controls expect a significant percentage of those whose permits will expire on April 1st 2015 to over-stay their visa and reside in Canada illegally, leaving Canada with a problem that Americans are more familiar with: a sizeable illegal immigrant population.

The immigrant magnets of Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto are expected to host the majority of those illegal migrants, which will likely put pressure on their infrastructure, public transit and policing resources, which are already being strained by rapid population growth.

Costs vs Generosity

Canadians are a generally generous people, who don’t like deporting individuals whose only crime is to stay in a country that affords them a better quality of life, but that generosity has to contend with the reality that unskilled foreign workers represent an economic cost for Canada.

Each additional person living in Canada comes with additional set costs in government spending, that can only be compensated if the person pays taxes that are at the Canadian average – something low-wage unskilled workers do not.

Allowing any of the literally hundreds of millions of people who would choose to immigrate and work in Canada if they could, to do so, would, in real terms, result in skyrocketing government spending levels and lower wages / higher unemployment rates for less skilled Canadians who would have to compete with the entrants in the labour market.

This means that immigration controls, and their integrity, are important for the economic well-being of Canada. Nevertheless, an extensive policing campaign that deports thousands of illegal immigrants, many of them living as families in Canada, would spark public outrage and would also be logistically difficult.

How Canada deals with the surge in the illegal immigrant population in 2015 remains to be seen.