On September 10, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Canada’s progression towards changing the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP).
Carney has expressed the need for the TFWP “to have a focused approach that targets specific, strategic sectors, and needs in specific regions,” along with the government’s efforts into employing these factors effectively.
What is the Temporary Foreign Worker Program?
TFWP is the main pathway for issuing work permits to foreign nationals in Canada. To become eligible for a work permit under this program, a foreign national must first receive a valid job offer from a Canadian employer who has obtained a positive Labor Market Impact Assessment (LMIA). Only after the LMIA is approved can the foreign national apply for a work permit.
LMIA ensures that the employment process of the foreign worker is to be impartial or favorable for Canadian market while verifying that jobs for Canadian citizens and permanent residents stays unchanged or possibly increases.
Throughout the past year, the government has continuously applied protocols into alternative options to scale back on the TWFP by:
- Creating a limit of 82,000 new TWFP admissions for 2025
- Suspending low-wage LMIA applications in regions with 6% or higher unemployment
- Increasing the starting point wage for the high-wage stream of the TFWP to 20% above the median regional wage
- Decreasing the amount of spousal open work permits (SOWPs) to spouses of TFWP holders in TEER 0 to 1 occupations, or in select in-demand TEER 2 or 3 occupations, and requiring TFWP holders to stay on a work permit for at least 16 months.
From January 2025 all the way to June, statistics have shown that the total distribution of work permits have lowered down by 50% compared to last year, demonstrating that only 33,722 net new TFWP work permits were released.
