Canada is placing a six month pause on processing of new Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) applications for the Temporary Foreign Worker Program’s (TFWP) low-wage stream in Greater Montreal.
The processing of these applications will be suspended starting September 3 for all job offers from greater Montreal where the offer is for wages below $27.47 per hour, Quebec’s median hourly wage.
“Our government is focused on preserving the integrity of the TFWP, making sure that employers resort to it only when there are no qualified workers already in Canada available to fill open job positions,” said Randy Boissonnault, the federal minister of employment, workforce development and official languages, on August 20.
“Today’s announcement is part of our ongoing efforts to adjust to the changing labour market while working with provinces and territories to ensure that the rules are followed to protect both Canadian workers and temporary foreign workers, as well as to support the Canadian economy.”
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The communities that comprise the greater Montreal area affected by the suspension in LMIA application processing include:
- Baie-d’Urfe
- Beaconsfield
- Cote Saint Luc
- Dollard-des-Ormeaux
- Dorval
- Hampstead
- Kirkland
- L’Ile-Dorval
- Montreal
- Montreal East
- Montreal West
- Mount Royal
- Pointe Claire
- Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue
- Senneville
- Westmount
Quebec Premier François Legault noted on Facebook on Tuesday that the province has welcomed too many temporary foreign workers to allow it to properly integrate them into Quebecois society.
“Over the past two years, the number of temporary immigrants in Quebec has doubled from 300,000 to 600,000,” wrote Legault on the social media website.
“The federal government is largely responsible for this explosion in the number of temporary immigrants. It has been asked to reduce by half the number of those under its responsibility. We must reduce the number of immigrants to protect our public services, to take pressure off housing and to protect the French language, particularly in Montreal.”
The pause on the processing of LMIA applications will not include jobs paying $57,000 or more or jobs in education, the healthcare sector, food processing or construction.
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“We must reduce the number of non-permanent residents, which has more than doubled since 2021,” tweeted Minister of Immigration, Francization and Integration (MIFI) Christine Fréchette.
“Today, we are announcing a moratorium on new applications and renewals to the TFWP in Montreal, for six months. Strategic sectors are exempt. We must protect our public services, our economy and the French language.”
An LMIA is a document that an employer in Canada may need to get before hiring a foreign worker. A positive LMIA will show that there is a need for a foreign worker to fill the job. It will also show that no Canadian worker or permanent resident is available to do the job.
Quebec’s struggle with its high number of temporary foreign workers started in the last quarter of last year when the province hit a new record for temporary residents as they hit 528,034, data from Statistics Canada revealed.
A year earlier, there were only 360,936 temporary residents in that province which under the leadership of its premier had repeatedly stated it would hold the line on immigration.
In November last year, Legault again stated his government’s immigration target in 2024 would be about 50,000 newcomers, about the same as this year, in a stated attempt to prevent the erosion of the French language and Quebecois culture.
“We chose … to keep the thresholds, so the total number of permanent immigrants accepted per year at 50,000,” Legault reportedly said in November.
“We had evaluated the possibility of increasing it to 60,000, but it’s important for us, to stop, to reverse the decline of French.”
The dramatic rise in the number of temporary residents to the province, though, has underscored the need of employers in Quebec to find solutions to the labour shortages they face and the desire of universities and colleges there to tap into the lucrative international student market.
Often, those temporary workers and international students then seek to immigrate to Canada through either the federal Express Entry system’s Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) program, Federal Skilled Trades (FST) program and Canadian Experience Class (CEC) or the Provincial Nominee Programs (PNP) of the provinces.