The federal government is extending the maximum duration of a low-wage Labour Market Impact Assessment from one year to two, allowing businesses to employ low-wage temporary foreign workers for longer, according to Canadian Press reporting by David Baxter published by Global News.

The assessment is the document an employer needs to hire a temporary foreign worker.

Restrictions on applications to hire temporary foreign workers in cities with unemployment above six per cent will remain in place, the government says. But early childhood educators are being added to the professions exempt from those restrictions, alongside health care, construction and food processing.

Ottawa is also proposing further changes that would exempt other professions from the unemployment threshold and allow employers to hire more temporary foreign workers. Those additional reforms are expected to take effect March 1, 2027, if provinces and territories endorse them.

Sources