Overview
- Employment and Social Development Canada raised the maximum length of low‑wage Labour Market Impact Assessments to two years, which sets the longest work‑permit IRCC can issue for those hires.
- The low‑wage moratorium that blocks new LMIAs in Census Metropolitan Areas with unemployment at or above 6% remains in place, but early childhood educators have been added to the list of exempt occupations.
- The government published proposed rules that would take effect with provincial and territorial opt‑in and let provinces add or remove exempt jobs and permit employers to raise the share of low‑wage temporary workers to 15% from 10%.
- The Rural Community Immigration Pilot has been made a permanent permanent‑residency pathway and is allocated about 5,500 permanent‑resident slots in the current levels plan.
- The longer LMIA duration will ease hiring in many regions but could leave low‑wage workers in high‑unemployment cities unable to renew if their CMA is on the moratorium list, creating status and staffing risks for employers.