News from the Temporary Foreign Workers Program

Shawnee Love   •  
May 3, 2012

On April 25, 2012, the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (an federal government of Canada program) introduced an exciting new initiative called the Accelerated Labour Market Opinion Initiative.

As anyone who has ever tried to recruit foreign workers to fill positions knows, the labour market opinion hurdle can be time consuming and confusing.  In fact, there are plenty of lawyers who make it their life’s work to help employers navigate the way through that obstacle course.

This accelerated program is supposed to help employers struggling to find skilled workers by cutting through the red tape.  In fact, the new program commits to issuing a Labour Market Opinion (necessary to obtain a work visa) within 10 business days, i.e., no more 10 week waits!

What you need to know about this new initiative is:

  • It applies to employers hiring temporary foreign workers (the hurdles to keeping these workers permanently are still in place).
  • It is only available for highly skilled positions such as management, professional, and skilled technical occupations.
  • It isn’t available for agricultural workers or the film & entertainment sector.
  • It still requires a valid job offer with a fair wage.
  • It still requires you to prove local candidates are not available.
  • It isn’t available for Quebec based employers.

Perhaps most important criteria to be aware of are that you can only take advantage of this new initiative if:

  • Your organization has already received at least 1 positive Labour Market Opinion in the last 2 years AND
  • Your organization has a clean record with the Program.

If this initiative sounds like it would work for your organization and you want to learn more, check out the information rich factsheet provided by the Canadian government on the Accelerated Labour Market Opinion Program.  Good luck!