Blue Bird Blog

Quebec announces suspension of LMIA processing for some low-wage temporary foreign workers

Starting September 3rd, the processing of Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs) to applicants in Montréal will be suspended for job offers with hourly wages below $27.47 CAD (the Quebec median hourly wage). This measure is expected to be in place for the next six months and has been approved by the federal government of Canada.

The suspension was announced this morning by Quebec Premier François Legault and Quebec’s Immigration Minister Christine Fréchette—with the intention of managing temporary resident levels in the province and maintaining the integrity of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP).

Note: Temporary resident refers to those who reside in Canada temporarily, on a work or study permit, or a visitor visa/ electronic travel authorization (eTA).

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.

Recent scrutiny on the TFWP in Canada

The TFWP is Canada’s federal stream to enable employers to hire foreign workers who help fill key labour shortages that the country cannot fix domestically. Through this stream, the hiring of a foreign worker must be supported by an LMIA.

The program has come under recent scrutiny after remarks from Canada’s Employment and Immigration Ministers.

Most notably, on the 6th of August, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development, and Official Languages Randy Boissonnault announced a suite of new measures to help preserve the integrity of the TFWP, taking specific aim at the low-wage stream of the program.

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.

Part of a wider suite of measures

These changes to the TFWP come at a time when Canada is reconsidering temporary immigration levels. For example, this past March, Minister Miller announced that Canada is introducing temporary resident levels to the annual immigration levels plan.

To support this, IRCC has implemented a temporary two-year cap on some international students, curbing the issuance of study permits with the introduction of a Provincial Attestation Letter (PAL) system.

Further to these changes, Miller has also stated his intention to pursue new regulations around the issuance of Post-Graduation Work Permits (PGWPs), and to have more “domestic draws” to target temporary residents already in Canada, for permanent residence (PR).

Visitors no longer allowed to apply for work permits from within Canada

As of August 28, temporary residents in Canada on a visitor visa are no longer permitted to apply for a job-supported work permit from within Canada.
The temporary policy allowing visitors to apply for these work permits was introduced in August 2020 to assist some visitors in Canada who were unable to return home because of border closures related to the COVID-19 pandemic—with the further aim of aiding employers to fill key labour gaps, by allowing some visitors who met certain conditions to apply for an job-supported work permit from inside Canada.

Is it worth applying for Express Entry after you turn 35?

Prospective Canadian immigrants are sometimes discouraged from applying for Express Entry after they turn 35 years of age.
This is largely due to points lost on their Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score.
The Express Entry application management system uses the CRS to rank and order eligible Express Entry candidates based on their human capital factors before they can receive an Invitation to Apply (ITA) for Canadian permanent residence from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

The average cost of buying a home in Canada’s largest cities

Housing has become a key issue for Canadians in 2024, with much attention given to the impact that changing interest rates, population increases, natural emigration patterns, and other factors have had on housing costs.
After compiling a guide on rental costs across Canada in 2024, CIC News has prepared the following guide on the costs of buying a home in Canada, considering the largest cities and population centers in each of the country’s provinces.

Here’s why the number of temporary workers in Quebec has nearly quadrupled in eight years

According to a recent report by a Quebec-based non-profit think tank, the province’s growth in temporary immigrants was primarily driven by two programs: the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) and the International Mobility Program (IMP).
According to this report, published by the Institut du Quebec (IDQ) last month, Quebec’s temporary resident population grew 46% in 2023 and most of this growth was due to an influx of temporary workers. Specifically, Quebec had 167,435 temporary work permit holders last year, almost four times as many as in 2015.