Ottawa Expands Low-Wage Foreign Worker Access Amid Rising Unemployment
AI-generated image · Bay Street Wire
New federal policy shifts increase the maximum duration of low-wage work permits and propose higher workforce quotas, granting provinces more control over labor shortages.
The federal government is implementing significant changes to the temporary foreign worker program, extending the maximum duration for low-wage Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs) from one year to two years, as CBC first reported.
While the government maintains that jobs should be available to Canadians first, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Lena Metlege Diab stated that certain regions lack Canadian applicants for specific roles. To address this, Ottawa is expanding the list of professions exempt from hiring restrictions in cities where unemployment exceeds six per cent. Early childhood educators have been added to this exemption list, which already includes specific roles in food processing, construction, and health care.
Further proposed measures, set for March 1, 2027, would grant provinces and territories the authority to modify the list of exempt occupations. Additionally, the federal government is proposing that provinces and territories be allowed to increase the maximum share of low-wage temporary foreign workers within a company's workforce to 15 per cent, an increase from the current 10 per cent limit. These changes require provinces and territories to opt in.
These policy shifts arrive as the national unemployment rate reached 6.7 per cent in October, according to Statistics Canada, with rates fluctuating between 6.5 per cent and 7 per cent over the last two years. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has criticized the program, arguing that temporary foreign workers should not be an option in any community where the unemployment rate is above 5.5 per cent.
In addition to the TFW program adjustments, Minister Diab announced in Stellarton, N.S., that the Rural Community Immigration Pilot is becoming a permanent government program and a pathway to permanent residency. The pilot involved 14 rural communities and more than 1,950 vetted employers who were unable to fill positions with local workers. The government has allocated approximately 5,500 permanent residency slots to this program in its most recent immigration levels plan.