It has been hard to keep up with all the announcements about changes to our immigration system this summer.
There are major changes to the temporary foreign worker program, which I have mainly avoided in my immigration practice because it has been ripe for abuse by some employers. There have been recent calls for cancelling the entire program, and that is worth considering, with exceptions for agricultural workers and food system employees.
The LMIA (Labour Market Impact Assessment) system is undergoing changes, and it’s about time. Most employers need a positive LMIA assessment before they can hire a temporary foreign worker. They have to advertise the position for at least four weeks and prove to a government officer that there are no Canadian citizens or permanent residents capable, or willing, to do the job.
There was a flood of entry-level office jobs approved under the program this year. If employers can’t find someone to work as an administrative assistant in their office, they are not looking very hard. Or, is it because they want to bring a niece, nephew, or family friend from their home country?
On August 26, the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages, Randy Boissonnault, announced changes that will take place by September 26.
The changes are: the Government of Canada will refuse to process LMIAs in the low-wage stream where unemployment is six per cent or higher. There will be exceptions for agriculture, food processing, fish processing, construction, and health care.
Second, employers will be allowed to hire no more than 10 per cent of their total workforce through the temporary foreign worker program.
Third, the maximum duration of employees hired through the low-wage stream will be reduced to one year from two years.
Work permits approved after a positive LMIA application are closed work permits, meaning the employee is tied to the one employer. That is not a healthy situation for the worker.
There will be a review after 90 days and we can likely expect more changes. They could include increasing the $1,000 LMIA application fee employers pay, and changes to the high wage stream.
Employers are already complaining, through their associations, such as the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and its president, Dan Kelly.
“If we take out the temporary foreign worker program, then you better not complain about the line at the local restaurant or the increase in menu prices,” he was quoted as saying.
That doesn’t sound like much of a defense of the system. There are lots of students around who can fill those jobs, both domestic and international. For international students, their hours of off-campus work are back to a maximum of 20 hours per week this fall, but it shouldn’t be that difficult for employers to schedule a timetable based on part-time workers.
Of course, they could always pay more. A business plan based on paying minimum wages to employees should not be encouraged by government immigration programs.
The changes are a reversal of steps taken during the Covid epidemic when there was an excessive number of job vacancies.
Today, the national unemployment rate is 6.4 per cent, up two per cent in the past two years, and for those ages 15 to 24 it’s 14.2 per cent. Times have changed and the government is reacting to those labour market changes.
Another reason for changes to the TFW program is the federal government’s goal of reducing the temporary resident population to five per cent, from its present 6.8 per cent. That number includes international students and refugee claimants, as well as temporary workers.
We can expect changes to the permanent resident streams as well. The target for new permanent resident approvals for 2025 is 500,000, and we may see an announcement this fall that the target will be reduced, due to housing concerns and public opinion pushback.
One change that will affect Northern Ontario is the fall announcement of the Rural Communities Immigration Pilot (RCIP), which will replace the successful Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot program (RNIP.)
The North Bay & District Chamber of Commerce, which was the RNIP project lead, has applied to lead the RCIP project and is waiting for an announcement. The announcement will also give us the criteria for the new program, which have been kept under wraps.
When I got into the immigration consulting business in 2019, I was expecting to see tweaks and minor changes to the various immigration streams each year. But, Covid changed everyone’s lives, and major immigration changes made then are now being clawed back a bit to reflect the changing labour market.
Will there be more immigration announcements before the end of 2024? You bet there will.
Editor’s Note: Don Curry is a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant living in North Bay, and a member of Bay Today’s community advisory committee.
