Are you thinking about hiring foreign workers in Canada?
The Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) is your go-to tool for making this happen.
This guide is here to explain the LMIA process and assist employers in the process of hiring foreign talent while keeping Canadian workers a top priority.
We’ll cover the significance of the LMIA, explain the differences between high-wage and low-wage workers, and provide you with all the insights you need.
Join us as we explore the secrets of LMIA and find the best talent for your Canadian team!
Firstly, what is a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA), and why is it important in the process of hiring a foreign talent?
For an employer planning on hiring foreign talent, undergoing the Labour Market Impact Assessment process and receiving a positive decision on an LMIA application is mandatory.Given the mandatory nature of the LMIA, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) will assess your application once you submit it. Officials of the ESDC will determine if your prospective employee will not be substituting for qualified Canadian workers.
This assessment is set by ESDC to examine and ensure that the Canadian employer has exhausted all available avenues in an effort to hire from within the Canadian Labor market and that the employer is fully set and financially capable of hiring foreign talent.
Further, in the process of the assessment, ESDC evaluates whether your prospective foreign worker will have a positive or neutral impact on the Canadian labour force.
The necessary steps a Canadian employer must follow before submitting an LMIA application to ESCD
As an employer, you must show the ESDC that you have advertised your job vacancy for at least four weeks before applying for an LMIA. Additionally, you have to demonstrate that you tried two other recruitment methods on top of posting an ad to the Canadian Job Bank website.
As an employer, you should also be focusing on marketing your job to underrepresented groups in Canada. Concerning the job expectations, you could market the job advertisement towards minority or oppressed communities and people with disabilities.
Your job listing must include either English or French as the only two necessary languages as a job requirement unless you can prove that another language is required for the job.
Labour Market Impact Assessment Process, How Applicants are Processed:
The documentation to be submitted to RSDC together with the Labour Market Impact Assessment application slightly varies, depending on prospective foreign workers’ wage classification. Your prospective employee can be classified as either a “high-wage” or “low-wage” worker. If your prospective employee will be paid under the provincial or territorial median wage, the application will be considered as “low-wage,” if the prospective employee will be paid at the median stipulated salary or above, the application would be considered as places on behalf of a “high-wage” prospective foreign worker.
Below, you can find a list of provincial median wages to get a better idea of where your employee stands regarding their classification:
Province Median Hourly Wages as of May, 31st 2023
Alberta $28.85
British Columbia $27.50
Manitoba $23.94
New Brunswick $23.00
Newfoundland & Labrador $25.00
Northwest Territories $38.00
Nova Scotia $22.97
Nunavut $35.90
Ontario $27.00
Prince Edward Island $22.50
Quebec $26.00
Saskatchewan $26.22
Yukon $35.00
Process for Hiring a High-Wage Worker:
While seeking a high-wage worker, the employer must provide a transition plan in addition to submitting a regular list of documents with an Labour Market Impact Assessment application. A transition plan is a document that will prove to the ESDC that upon hiring as foreign worker the employer will take proper steps to lower the reliance on the foreign worker’s skills and that the foreign worker will transfer his/her skills to Canadians during his employment in Canada.
You can prove this by showing that you’ve invested in training your employees. Additionally you helped foreign workers become permanent residents, or hired Canadian apprentices. These actions demonstrate your dedication to supporting the Canadian workforce.
Process For Hiring a Low-Wage Worker:
When looking to hire a low-wage worker, an employer does not require to submit a transition plan.
Instead, in restricting employers from taking advantage of the TFWP, the government of Canada has put a cap on the number of low-wage foreign workers one business can employ. Employers with 10 or more employees applying for an LMIA are limited to having 20% of their workforce as temporary foreign workers.
If you are offering a wage that is lower than the provincial/territorial standard, you must do the following:
Pay for round-trip transportation for your temporary foreign worker employee.
Be sure affordable housing is available to them.
Cover private health insurance until they are eligible for provincial health coverage.
Register your temporary foreign worker with the provincial/territorial workplace safety board.
Create an employer-employee contract.
Preparing a solid LMIA application is a meticulous process involving a comprehensive understanding of what makes an application meritorious and how ESDC assesses each application.
- Jane Katkova & Associates has proudly assisted many hundreds of Canadian midsize to large corporate entities in bringing much-needed foreign talent to Canada.
With over 20 years of corporate immigration experience, we have in-depth expertise in the preparation of LMIA applications for employers from practically every existing industry and successfully undergoing a process of LMIA assessment together with our clients.
We are here to ensure your success. Start Your LMIA process WITH US.
