Beginning on May 1, Alberta will no longer prohibit the hiring of new temporary foreign employees.
This modification applies to all outstanding applications, including those submitted before May 1.
Prior to the modification, the Alberta government maintained a “refusal to process” list of jobs for which employers were prohibited from submitting applications to the Canadian government to hire temporary foreign employees in the province.
On the suggestion of the Alberta government, the Canadian government, which oversees the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), refused to process TFWP applications for these jobs. According to the Alberta government, these occupations had labour surpluses. Alberta sought to persuade employers to recruit unemployed Albertans instead.
Alberta has defended the easing of its TFWP rules on the grounds that it will benefit sectors of the province’s economy that are struggling to attract Canadian workers due to labour shortages.
As per Statistics Canada, there are over 88,000 job openings in the province.
Alberta said it will monitor this change’s effects and make any necessary adjustments to ensure that the TFWP continues to help its economy.
The objective of the TFWP is to allow Canadian firms to engage foreign workers to fill gaps when they are unable to find a Canadian citizen or permanent resident to complete the job. The Canadian government normally requires a business to file a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) application.
The government of Canada will then determine whether the employment of the foreign worker will have a positive, negative, or neutral effect on the Canadian labour market. Typically, evidence must be submitted that no qualified Canadians are available to perform the job. The foreign worker may next submit a work permit application to Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada if a positive or neutral LMIA is granted.
There are over 800,000 job openings in Canada, resulting in a nationwide labour shortage. As a result, federal and provincial governments are relaxing existing laws to enable firms to attract more foreign talent to bolster the Canadian labour market. In response to the country’s historically low unemployment rate and historically high job vacancy rate, the Canadian government reduced TFWP regulations at the beginning of April.
The unemployment rate in Canada has reached a record of 5.3%, lowest ever.
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