Question Period Note: Labour Market Impact Assessment Processing

The Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program has seen a significant increase in overall demand and has taken measures to improve processing times and reduce the inventory of Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) applications

Employer demand for the Temporary Foreign Worker Program has significantly increased given the impact of the pandemic on the labour market, placing ongoing pressure on the Service Canada processing network.

• The Department has initiated a number of measures to ensure that employers receive timely decisions so that temporary foreign workers can enter Canada to support key industries, such as agriculture and agri-food.

• The Department has taken concrete action, including hiring more staff and implementing significant streamlining measures in September 2021 and January 2022 to speed up productivity and process applications from employers more quickly.

• Service Canada has doubled its productivity since January 2022 (when compared with its average productivity prior to implementing both streamlining measures), and is now processing approximately 2,000 applications per week.

• Once a Labour Market Impact Assessment is issued, the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada processes individual work permits for temporary foreign workers.

The Temporary Foreign Worker Program is designed to be responsive to the Canadian labour market by ensuring that Canadians and Permanent Residents are first considered for available jobs.

The Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) process is the key labour market test that provides the government with assurances that hiring temporary foreign workers will not have a negative impact on the Canadian labour market.

The Program aims to strike a balance between protecting the Canadian Labour Market, informing employers of their obligations and protecting workers once they arrive.

The Program, when excluding the Global Talent Stream, has seen an increase of 22% in Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) volume compared to the year-to-date forecasts, with the Quebec Region seeing a 55% increase. Through the introduction of facilitative measures and staff overtime, despite unprecedented program demand, processing times have improved and the Program’s inventory has decreased by approximately 900 files since January 2022, and is at 11,723 pending applications as of March 27, 2022.

The Program has processed a record high number of files in 2021-2022, with over 68,307 files processed (including Global Talent Stream). The overall Program inventory is at 11,723 pending applications as of March 27, 2022.

This fiscal year, through the introduction of facilitative measures and staff overtime, the Program maintained its service target for the Caregiver Stream (average processing time of 22 business days).

The Agriculture, High-Wage, Low-Wage, Permanent Resident and Seasonal Agriculture Workers Program Streams are all currently below their Service Level target at the national level (25, 49, 52, 36 and 16 business days respectively).

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