The Labour Market Impact Assessment or LMIA is a document that is required by the Canadian employer before hiring a foreign national. There are various jobs that come under the Canada LMIA jobs but before being listed under the Canada LMIA jobs, Employment and Social Development Canada assesses that employment of the foreign worker won’t affect the economy in a negative sense. After assessing the Employment and Social Development Canada allocates a imia number to the employer. For registering in the LMIA a Canadian employer has to fill up the labour market impact assessment application or lmia application forms. There are various lmia requirements for employers in order to be eligible for getting the lmia document. The lmia processing time is about 10 working days and lmia application fees is CDN $1000 and add to that a privilege fees is of CDN $100. But there are many cases where there is a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) exemption being provided by the Canadian government for the employer.
Once the Canadian employer gets a Labour Market Impact Assessment document, the prospective employee can apply for a work permit. For applying work permit, the prospective employee needs to possess following documents:-
✍ Contract
✍ Job offer
✍ LMIA number
✍ Copy of LMIA
The LMIA differs according to the prospective employee is classified as ‘high wage’ or ‘low wage’. If the employee is paid up the provincial/territorial medium wage it is termed as high wage and if it’s vice versa then it is considered as a low wage. According to the specifications of high wage or low wage, there are some specifications that apply.
Though Employment and Social Development Canada pledges to process the application within the 10 business days, but still it stays unpredictable and can range from couple of weeks to few months. Following are the categories that would be processed within the period of 10 days:-
✍ Highest paid (top 10%) occupations
✍ LMIA applicants who are under the highest demand occupations
✍ Short duration work periods i.e. 120 days or less
Before proceeding further, a person should clearly understand who are the high wage workers are and low wage workers who are defined as below:-
Canadian employers who plan to hire the high wage workers need to submit the transition plan with their Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) application in order to be sure that the employers are taking steps to reduce their reliance on temporary foreign workers over time.
The transition plan ensures that the Canadian employers are taking it as a last resort to address immediate labour needs on a temporary basis when qualified Canadians are not available. This ensures that Canadian citizens are given the first preference over the foreigners.
Canadian employers do not need to submit the transition plans with their Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) application, however they need to follow the different set of guidelines.
To ensure that the Canadians are given the first preference and to restrict access to Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), Canadian government has posted restrictions on the limit of on wage workers a business can employ. The cap of employees in low wage workers is 10% per organization.
Canadian employers offering wage to low wage workers must:-
✍ Ensuring the affordable housing.
✍ Have to pay for health insurance until the workers are eligible for provincial health coverage.
✍ Has to provide an employer-employee contract.
✍ Have to pay for round trip transportation for temporary foreign workers.
✍ Have to register the temporary foreign workers with the provincial/territorial workplace safety board.
The table shows the comparison of current Medan hourly rate by province or territory as on May 3, 2018 and May 3, 2017. If an employer is offering wage above this median rate then it comes under high wage positions and if it comes under the median rate then it comes under the low wage positions.
|
Province/Territory |
Wages prior to May 3, 2018 2016 Wage ($/hour) |
Wages as of May 3, 2018 2017 Wage ($/hour) |
|
Alberta |
$25.89 | $26.40 |
| British Columbia | $22.50 |
$23.00 |
|
Manitoba |
$20.00 | $20.83 |
| New Brunswick | $18.90 |
$19.35 |
|
Newfoundland and Labrador |
$20.31 | $21.98 |
| Northwest Territories | $32.00 |
$32.00 |
|
Nova Scotia |
$19.49 | $20.00 |
| Nunavut | $30.00 |
$31.00 |
|
Ontario |
$22.12 | $22.50 |
| Prince Edward Island | $18.44 |
$19.00 |
|
Quebec |
$21.00 | $21.75 |
| Saskatchewan | $23.60 |
$24.00 |
| Yukon | $28.00 |
$28.00 |
Source:- Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey
LMIA documents will provided in the period of 10 working days under the following occupation categories:-
✍ Highest-demand occupations
Candidates, who get the same or are offered the wage at or above the provincial/territorial median wage, fall under this category. These positions are considered vital for the Canadian economy as this helps to develop infrastructure and natural resources. Following are the list of occupation that comes under this category:-
|
NOC |
OCCUPATION TITLE |
|
7202 |
Contractors and supervisors, electrical trades and telecommunications occupations |
| 7204 |
Contractors and supervisors, carpentry trades |
|
7205 |
Contractors and supervisors, other construction trades, installers, repairers and servicers |
| 7271 |
Carpenters |
|
7301 |
Contractors and supervisors, mechanic trades |
| 7302 |
Contractors and supervisors, heavy equipment operator crews |
|
8211 |
Supervisors, logging and forestry |
| 8221 |
Supervisors, mining and quarrying |
|
8222 |
Contractors and supervisors, oil and gas drilling services |
| 8241 |
Logging machinery operators |
|
8252 |
Agricultural service contractors, farm supervisors and specialized livestock workers |
| 9211 |
Supervisors, mineral and metal processing |
|
9212 |
Supervisors, petroleum, gas and chemical processing and utilities |
| 9214 |
Supervisors, plastic and rubber products manufacturing |
|
9231 |
Central control and process operators, mineral and metal processing |
| 9241 |
Power engineers and power systems operators |
|
9243 |
Water and waste treatment plant operators |
| 7231 |
Machinists and machining and tooling inspectors |
|
7233 |
Sheet metal workers |
| 7235 |
Structural metal and plate work fabricators and fitters |
|
7236 |
Ironworkers |
| 7237 |
Welders and related machine operators |
|
7241 |
Electricians (except industrial and power system) |
| 7242 |
Industrial electricians |
|
7243 |
Power system electricians |
| 7244 |
Electrical power line and cable workers |
|
7245 |
Telecommunications line and cable workers |
| 7246 |
Telecommunications installation and repair workers |
|
7251 |
Plumbers |
| 7252 |
Steamfitters, pipefitters and sprinkler system installers |
|
7253 |
Gas fitters |
| 7311 |
Construction millwrights and industrial mechanics |
|
7312 |
Heavy-duty equipment mechanics |
| 7313 |
Refrigeration and air conditioning mechanics |
|
7314 |
Railway carmen/women |
| 7315 |
Aircraft mechanics and aircraft inspectors |
|
7318 |
Elevator constructors and mechanics |
| 7371 |
Crane operators |
|
7372 |
Drillers and blasters – surface, mining, quarrying and construction |
| 7373 |
Water well drillers |
|
8231 |
Underground production and development miners |
| 8232 |
Oil and gas well drillers, servicers, testers and related workers |
|
9232 |
Petroleum, gas and chemical process operators |
Source:- Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey
Employers who have the highest paid occupations are offered 10 day service standard i.e. these employers get the LMIA application within 10 business days. These wages are set for those temporary foreign workers whos skills are difficult to find in the Canadian Business Market. Following is the list of wages being offered in various provinces:-
|
Alberta |
$13.60 ($15.00 October 1, 2018) |
| British Columbia |
$12.65 |
|
Saskatchewan |
$10.96 |
| Manitoba |
$11.15 ($11.35 Oct 1, 2018) |
|
Ontario |
$14.00 General Workers ($15.00 Jan 1, 2019) |
|
Quebec |
$12.00 |
|
New Brunswick |
$11.25 |
| Nova Scotia |
$11.00 Experienced workers |
|
Prince Edward Island |
$11.55 |
| Newfoundland & Labrador |
$11.15 |
|
Yukon |
$11.51 |
| Northwest Territories |
$13.46 |
|
Nunavut |
$13.00 |
| Federal Rate |
Prevailing rate of province in which work is performed |
Source:- Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey
Employers offering the shortest duration occupations i.e. 120 days or less get the LMIA documents within 10 days of applying, in any occupation where the wage is at or above the provincial or territorial median wage. Vacancies that fall under this category are related to the repairs and manufacturing equipment and warranting work.
After receiving the LMIA documents copy is to be send to the candidate which would further help candidate’s application for Temporary Work Permit.
A Canadian employer, as per the general rule, must receive a LMIA document from the Canadian government, but there are some exceptions where the LMIA document is exempted. Following are those occupations:-
1. Dependents of Foreign Workers
2. Academics
3. Intra Company Transferees
4. Entrepreneurs/Self Employed Persons
5. French Speaking Skilled Worker
6. Provincial LMIA Exemptions
7. Reciprocal Employment
8. Charitable Workers
9. Religious Workers
All in all, Canadian employers need to have all the documents and must follow all procedures in order to hire a foreign national. This is within the check of the supply of required worker within the Canadian land for a particular said vacancy.
For more updates upon the labour market impact assessment (LMIA) please do call us on +919625212959 Email your queries on info@makevisas.com.
