Canada is restoring a two-year maximum employment period for jobs in the Temporary Foreign Worker Program’s Low-Wage Stream, a change officials say will help employers facing staffing shortages.
Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) said employers can request periods of up to two years for Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) applications filed on or after Nov. 6. The previous maximum was one year.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) says an LMIA evaluates the likely effect of hiring a temporary foreign worker on Canada’s labor market. A positive assessment indicates that no Canadian citizen or permanent resident is available for the job and a temporary worker is needed. Most employers need one before the worker applies for a work permit.
The government also added early childhood educators to exceptions from a rule that generally blocks processing low-wage applications in Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs) where unemployment is 6% or higher. Health care, construction and food processing were already among the exceptions.
A separate set of proposed changes is scheduled for March 1, 2027, subject to provincial and territorial participation. Opt-in jurisdictions could shape which occupations qualify in large CMAs, with populations above 250,000, where unemployment is below 6%, as well as in rural areas of large CMAs and smaller CMAs with populations of 100,000 to 250,000. Rural communities would retain access to all Low-Wage Stream occupations, and participating jurisdictions could add occupations to or remove them from the applicable lists.
Participating provinces and territories could also ask to let eligible employers fill up to 15% of their workforce through the stream, compared with the current 10% maximum. Priority sectors would keep their 20% limit. ESDC says temporary foreign workers in the program account for about 1% of Canada’s labor force.
The Globe and Mail reported that business groups had sought broader program access after earlier restrictions. It also reported that Syed Hussan, executive director of Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, criticized expanded employer access without stronger assurances of permanent residence for workers.
The change reverses a 2024 reduction that lowered the maximum employment period from two years to one. That year, the government also introduced the processing restriction for CMAs with unemployment of 6% or higher. Jobs and Families Minister Patty Hajdu cited persistent staffing gaps in key sectors as a reason for the changes. She plans to meet provincial and territorial counterparts in the coming weeks; the government has not named which jurisdictions will opt in.
