As expected, the Canadian government has finally Revamped The Temporary Foreign Worker visa scheme (TFWP). The announcement to this effected was made on June 20, 2014 at a joint press conference by the honorable Minister Minister of Employment and Social Development, Jason Kenney, and Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Chris Alexander. As per them, the government needed to look into this matter on the war footing and bring about a radical change in the work permit scheme in order to make this temporary scheme more effective and efficient.
As has been suggested, the Canadian provisional work visa scheme will see a major restructuring in the days to follow. This announcement was altogether no surprise as there was a lot of controversy surrounding the grant of provisional work permit to the overseas personnel. the authorities has been observing over the time that the older scheme had many structural and legal loopholes which facilitated misuse of the erstwhile policy.
The old format of the Canada Temporary Foreign Worker Program was being used by the local employers as a shield against hiring locals who had to be compensated at the contemporary rates. The employers instead resorted to hiring personnel from foreign countries at a much lower wage rate and compensation. This actually took away opportunities from qualified Canadians especially in sectors in the food services sector.
The issue of local employers preferring overseas personnel over the locals was becoming a problematic issue and it was raising resentment among the local public. When the protests pitched high, the authorities finally decided to put the TFWP on hold for a while. Although the TFWP scheme has been installed to serve the local labor pool by filling up the void of skills in various professions, this scheme was being abused by some unscrupulous elements.
The new intended incorporations are meant to usher in an element of flexibility and adaptability which will in turn help the Canada Temporary Foreign Worker Program to cater to the changing requirements of the Canadian local labor requirements and also protect the rights of the both local and overseas personnel.
The Revamped Temporary Worker Program has been bifurcated into two segments. Although TFWP has several pathways to facilitate entry of overseas personnel into the country but the new policy will only include only those routes that need an approval from the federal government for employment offered by the local employers. The new approval system will now be issues in form of a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) instead of Labour Market Opinion (LMO). The process of this scheme would remain under the supervision of Employment and Skills Development Canada.
Certain categories of overseas personnel have been excluded from the need to obtain an LMIA, i.e. segments that fall under the purview of reciprocal employment agreements with other countries or segments that enable the entry of personnel whose expertise could prove to significantly beneficial for the Canadian economy. These segments would now be categorized as International Mobility Programs, and will be managed by Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
