A light at the end of the tunnel is showing for businesses struggling with a severe labor shortage and with a heavy process to recruit temporary foreign workers. According to information made public by the Ministère de l’Immigration, de la Francisation et de l’Intégration (MIFI) on August 6, Quebec and Ottawa have reached, following lengthy discussions, three new measures to help businesses to offer more labor from abroad and to be able to do so a little more quickly: (1) easing the conditions of the Quebec Temporary Foreign Worker Program; (2) the creation of a transitional open work permit; (3) and the establishment of the International Mobility Program. These are the main agreements between Quebec and Ottawa to facilitate the arrival and hiring of foreign workers.

These measures, which come into force on August 31, will make it possible to provide flexibility to attempt to improve administrative procedures in order to help companies better cope with the issue of the labor shortage that has prevailed for a few years.

In more details, it is planned under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program: to increase the thresholds for temporary foreign workers present in Quebec businesses from 10% to 20%; the exemption from the Labor Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) for job offers in certain occupations that will be identified.

The bridging open work permit is essentially in favor of temporary foreign workers who are already in Quebec and who are in a procedure for admission to permanent residence. It will allow them for the duration of its validity, two (2) years, to take jobs of their choice. For these temporary foreign workers, they must however hold a Certificat de sélection du Quebec (CSQ) in the skilled workers category.

The imminent implementation of the International Mobility Plus Program, called IMP+, is a big announcement because it will allow 7,000 foreign workers to come to Quebec each year and work there without the employer needing to obtain a LMIA. The main condition is that the worker has at least his CSQ.

A boulevard of opportunities is now offered to companies that have long denounced the lethargy of both levels of government and called on them to do something to help. However, it remains that everyone can really benefit from these new measures.

To find out more, do not hesitate to contact us, in order to benefit from our expertise in the field of immigration and international mobility that we have been able to develop over the past twenty years.