Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), the federal ministry responsible for the labour market, revamped its list of median hourly wages used by employers when hiring foreign nationals under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP).
The new list is to take effect on May 31.
“The wage being offered for the position will determine if you need to apply for a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) under the stream for high-wage positions or the stream for low-wage positions, each with their own requirements,” the ministry’s website explains to employers.
Employers offering a wage to a temporary foreign worker that is at or above the provincial or territorial median hourly wage must apply under the stream for high-wage positions.
Those employers who are offering wages below the provincial or territorial median hourly wage must apply under the stream for low-wage positions.
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In the latest list of median hourly wages, only the territory of Nunavut is showing a drop in wages for workers.
Median hourly wages by province or territory | ||
Province/territory | Median hourly wages prior to May 31, 2023 | Median hourly wages as of May 31, 2023 |
Alberta | $28.85 | $28.85 |
British Columbia | $26.44 | $27.50 |
Manitoba | $23.00 | $23.94 |
New Brunswick | $21.79 | $23.00 |
Newfoundland and Labrador | $24.29 | $25.00 |
Northwest Territories | $37.30 | $38.00 |
Nova Scotia | $22.00 | $22.97 |
Nunavut | $36.00 | $35.90 |
Ontario | $26.06 | $27.00 |
Prince Edward Island | $21.63 | $22.50 |
Quebec | $25.00 | $26.00 |
Saskatchewan | $25.96 | $26.22 |
Yukon | $32.00 | $35.00 |
Through its two-step immigrant selection process, Canada often welcomes temporary foreign workers who gain experience with their work permits before applying for permanent residency.
Canadian employers seeking to fill jobs going begging for a want of qualified workers often turn to either the TFWP or International Mobility Program (IMP) to bring in foreign nationals to fill those positions.
In the second step towards permanent residency, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) decides how many and which temporary foreign workers will be eligible for admission as permanent residents.
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The latest data from the IRCC reveals that Canada benefited from the labour of 319,530 foreign nationals working in the country through the IMP and TFWP.
The IMP allowed 183,710 foreign nationals to get their work permits and the TFWP helped another 135,820.
On its website, the IRCC provides estimates of the processing times for immigration applications. The current estimate for work permits from outside of Canada varies wildly from only three weeks for some countries to as much as four years for others but a good benchmark is three to four months for most countries.