Illegal sales of jobs to foreigners hoping to work in Canada have declined over the past year.
Employment Minister Patty Hajdu
says that due to increased enforcement and policy changes
temporary foreign worker program
(TFVP).
“I have instructed my officials to ensure that we stop fraud in the system in every possible way,” she said. “Whether it's consultants who post jobs that don't exist, whether it's consultants who promise opportunities for foreign workers in a Canadian country.
this does not exist, all these things need to be taken seriously and dealt with.”
Applications for Labor Market Impact Assessments (LMIA), a federal government document that most businesses must obtain before they can hire a foreign worker, fell 58 percent from April to September this year compared with the same period in 2024.
The number of LMIA applications fell to 37,029 between April and September from 87,167 a year ago.
Hajdu said there was a correlation between the decline in LMIA applications and the number of those trying to obtain LMIAs to sell on the market.
“I suspect it has to do with the increased enforcement that we're pushing for,” she said.
Employers can use the TFWP to hire foreign workers, but they often need to prove that they cannot find the worker for that specific position in Canada. If they can do this, they will receive an LMIA for that specific job, which essentially gives them permission to hire a foreign worker.
However, some groups illegally sell LMIA-approved jobs to foreigners who are either outside the country or already in Canada. These jobs provide additional points that help temporary workers increase their immigration scores and transition to permanent residents.
Industry insiders said demand for LMIA-supported jobs has increased in 2024 as recent changes to Canada's points-based immigration system for skilled workers have made it more difficult for potential immigrants to qualify.
But the extra points associated with LMIA-supported jobs were removed last December.
In addition to tightening controls and eliminating points, the government also announced a reduction in the percentage of foreign workers a company can hire and limited the hiring of low-wage workers through the TFWP last year. Both moves also contributed to a decline in the overall number of LMIA applications.
TFWP has been under scrutiny lately. Last month
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre
said he wanted to scrap the program and blamed it for flooding the market with cheap labor, making it harder for Canadians to find work.
said in September that he wanted the program to be more targeted.
Hajdu, who became labor secretary in May after Carney took office, said her team has taken additional steps to monitor TFWP.
A couple of weeks after Poilievre called for the program to be abandoned, Hajdu's department issued its largest fine ever because
New Brunswick seafood company fined
$1 million and banned him from using TFWP to hire foreign workers for 10 years for workplace abuses. Overall, fines imposed on businesses this year were higher than usual.
Hajdu said the higher-than-usual fines were not related to Poilievre's comments.
“Let's be clear: enforcement is tough and it takes time,” she said. “There's an investigative part and a component to a fine like a million dollars or a ban… these are significant and serious fines, and the government needs to take the time to do its due diligence and make sure it's applying the right penalties.”
Hajdu said her department has taken additional steps to invest in “the enforcement side, use digital tools for enforcement and make sure that employers applying for temporary foreign workers are actually a good fit for this program.”
Canada
is growing and the number of job openings is falling, but the uneven distribution of the labor force means that jobs are difficult to fill in some regions, especially rural areas. Businesses in some of these regions have called on the government to ease restrictions on temporary foreign workers.
Hajdu said the government is open to working with different sectors and regions where outsiders do not often reside to better understand the labor shortage problem.
“These are deep questions that need to be answered,” she said. “But ultimately, temporary foreign workers are not a sustainable long-term solution for things like the tourism industry, the food sector or a number of other low-wage sectors. These are conversations that need to happen at all levels of government.”
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