Canada's New Government Makes Improvements to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program
VANCOUVER,
BRITISH COLUMBIA--(CCNMatthews
- Feb. 23, 2007) - The Honourable Monte Solberg, Minister of Human
Resources and Social Development (HRSDC), and the Honourable Diane Finley,
Minister of Citizenship and Immigration (CIC) today announced additional
improvements to the Temporary Foreign Worker program. These improvements
address challenges that Canadian employers face in filling labour
shortages and so help Canada stay competitive and contribute to a strong
economy.
"As part of the Advantage Canada strategy, Canada's New Government is
making changes to our Temporary Foreign Worker program to make it faster
and easier for Canadian employers to meet their labour force needs,"
said Minister Solberg. "Employers who have exhausted their search for
Canadian workers often need to hire temporary foreign workers to work for
a period longer than a year, and today's announcement will allow this to
happen."
"The changes will reduce the time that employers have to wait to get
the workers they need," said Minister Finley. "As well,
extending the time that workers can stay in Canada provides more security
and stability to the workers and to the employers".
The Honourable Colin Hansen, B.C. Minister of Economic Development,
welcomed the improvements saying, "These additional changes to the
Foreign Worker Program will help our employers by making sure they have
the labour force to sustain our booming economy."
"The Foreign Worker Program requires that we demonstrate efforts to
recruit in Canada, but sometimes Canadians are not available," said
Wendy Swedlove, President of the Canadian Tourism Human Resource Council (CTHRC).
"In these situations, the improvements would help us to hire workers
for these vacant jobs. The changes will make it easier for us to bring in
temporary foreign workers so that we can continue to contribute to
Canada's economy."
These measures are a good first step in dealing with some of the issues
faced by small businesses, according to the Canadian Federation of
Independent Business (CFIB). "With the shortage of labour at an
all-time high, foreign workers are a more and more important resource for
small businesses trying to deal with the issue," said Catherine
Swift, President and CEO of CFIB. "However, CFIB research found that
the immigration and temporary foreign worker process is cumbersome and
complicated to navigate. Today's announcement shows the government is
listening to small business' concerns and is beginning to address the
issues," she added.
The Program allows employers to hire temporary foreign workers when there
are no Canadian citizens or permanent residents available for the
positions. Previously, temporary foreign workers with less formal training
would have to leave Canada after twelve months, for four months, and then
re-apply to come back. With these changes, they can stay for up to
twenty-four months without having to request an extension.
Two other measures are also being introduced which will save employers
time. Employers will be able to apply online to HRSDC for a labour market
opinion (LMO) (see attached backgrounder), and, upon request, CIC and
HRSDC will process work permits and LMO's concurrently.
BACKGROUNDER
Canada's New Government makes additional improvements to the Foreign
Worker Program.
In November and December 2006, Canada's New Government announced
improvements to the Foreign Worker Program. These improvements included
the development of Lists of Regional Occupations Under Pressure which cut
recruiting time for employers. These lists are currently available in
British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario and will be announced in other
provinces and territories as they become available. In addition a handbook
for employers has been developed detailing exactly what steps they must
take to hire a foreign worker. The November announcement also highlighted
the ongoing work of two federal-provincial working groups in Alberta and
B.C.
On February 23, 2007, Canada's New Government announced four additional
changes to the Foreign Worker Program:
- To extend the duration of the Labour Market Opinion (LMO) from up to 12
months, to up to 24 months in length where appropriate. A Labour Market
Opinion (LMO) is an assessment of the likely impact a temporary offer of
employment will have on the Canadian labour market.
Effective February 23, 2007 this extension affects those foreign workers
working in Canada under the Pilot Project for Occupations Requiring Lower
Levels of Formal Training (National Occupational Classification (NOC) C
and D categories). The list of jobs requiring less formal training can be
found under occupations NOC C and D on the National Occupational
Classification website at: http://www23.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/2001/e/generic/matrix.pdf;
- To enable employers to complete the "Foreign Worker Application
(Application for a Labour Market Opinion)" form online as of April 1,
2007 (see attached backgrounder). Employers will be able to access
information about applying online by mid-March 2007, following this link: http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/en/epb/lmd/fw/onlineappintro.shtml;
- To extend the duration of the LMO under the Live-in Caregiver Program
from 1 year to a maximum of 3 years and 3 months when requested by the
employer. Effective February 23, 2007 live-in caregivers will be eligible
for work permits for the same time period. Therefore, most live-in
caregivers who remain with the same employer will no longer have to apply
every year to have their work permits renewed; and
- To expedite the process for employers hiring a foreign worker by
allowing work permit applications to be processed at the same time as the
application for an LMO, if requested by the worker. Effective February 23,
2007 this concurrent processing of the employer's LMO and the foreign
national's work permit should reduce the total processing time for these
applications.
Backgrounder
"Application for a Labour Market Opinion"
Online Form for Employers
The Foreign Worker Program (FWP) is jointly administered by Human
Resources and Social Development Canada (HRSDC) and Citizenship and
Immigration Canada (CIC). Under the Immigration and Refugee Protection
Regulations (IRPR), HRSDC is required to provide an opinion to Citizenship
and Immigration (CIC) or to an employer on the likely impact hiring a
foreign worker will have on the Canadian labour market. This is called a
"Labour Market Opinion" or LMO. In addition, most foreign
nationals who wish to work in Canada temporarily require a work permit
from CIC.
As of April 1, 2007, employers will be able to completely fill-in and
submit their Foreign Worker Application (the "Application for a
Labour Market Opinion" form) over the Internet at http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/en/epb/lmd/fw/onlineappintro.shtml.
This is the only FWP application form which will be available to be
submitted online at present. Employers will still be able to access the
Adobe Acrobat "fill and print" version of the application form
via the FWP forms page at: http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/en/epb/lmd/fw/forms.shtml
. All other FWP application forms (e.g. seasonal agricultural worker
program, live-in caregivers) will also still be available in the Adobe
Acrobat "fill and print" format via the FWP forms page.
For security reasons, when completing the online version of the
"Application for a Labour Market Opinion", employers must fill
out the entire on-line form at one time (in a single session) - it cannot
be saved and returned to later. The online version of the form is in a
questionnaire format and each question is accompanied by additional
information and a "Help" button that provides specific
instructions on completing each question.
Once all the questions have been answered and the form has been
successfully submitted electronically, employers will receive confirmation
of their submission and a tracking number for the employer to keep (for
future reference). In addition to the online application, employers will
be required to submit the following: a printed and signed copy of the
"Declaration of Employer" page; a printout of the page showing
the tracking number; and any additional supporting information. All these
documents must be submitted to the Service Canada office before the
application can be fully processed. This tracking number must be included
on all supporting paper documents, or information that they submit
regarding the application. To reduce processing time, employers are
encouraged to submit all supporting paper documents using one method:
either all by fax or all by mail.
Depending on the complexity of an application, completing and submitting
the Foreign Worker Application (Application for a Labour Market Opinion)
form online will save employers time and will reduce processing time in
most cases.
