Immigrants paying up to $60,000 for LMIA, say groups
Immigrants looking to land employment in Canada are being asked to pay tens of thousands of dollars by employers who are abusing the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program, and more groups are now speaking up about the abuse.
Visitors to Canada often buy a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) through unethical consultants and employers to convert their visitor visas into work permits, said Manan Gupta, president of Skylake Immigration, in a TruckNews.com report.
And these visitors are paying up to $60,000 for an LMIA in Ontario, with prices varying in other parts of the country.
Aaron Dolyniuk, executive director of the Manitoba Trucking Association (MTA), said that people are being charged between $50,000 and $60,000. Robert Harper, president of Alberta Motor Transport Association (AMTA), said he’s heard people have paid $25,000 and as high as $40,000, according to the report.
In May, the owner of an Edmonton-based immigration business was convicted for charging $30,000 and $45,000 to arrange employment for foreign workers, according to a previous CBC report.
The LMIA scheme has been evolving for the past 30 years, said Centre for Newcomers CEO Anila Umar in the same CBC report.
Number of LMIA approvals
Stephen Laskowski, president of the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) and Ontario Trucking Association, also raised the issue of the number of LMIAs that the federal government is approving.
“The Canadian Trucking Alliance on many occasions has seen unusual activity in our sector and irregularities when it comes to some carriers and the number of approved LMIAs [Labour Market Impact Assessments] they have,” said Laskowski in the TruckNews.com report.
“In some cases, we can see some companies with huge numbers of approved LMIAs in proportion to their fleet size. This should be an obvious red flag for authorities that draws questions as to why more drivers are required than trucks registered to the fleets.”
Overall, the number of positions approved to be filled by temporary foreign workers in 2023 stood at 239,646, more than double the 108,988 recorded in 2018, CBC previously reported, citing data from Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC).
The surge came at a time when Ottawa rolled out its Recognized Employer Pilot (REP) under TFW Program.
"All we hear about are labour shortages, [but] we have to begin to recognize that this really is a self-serving narrative mostly coming from corporate Canada," said Mikal Skuterud, a labour economics professor at the University of Waterloo, in the CBC report.
In January, Ottawa expanded the REP to employers in different fields.
Penalties for non-compliant employers
Despite the numbers, Ottawa is tightening the rules for employers in sectors identified as high risk for LMIA fraud. These employers receive an enhanced assessment to validate the employer’s business operations and the human resource needs, said Mila Roy, from ESDC’s media relations office., in the TruckNews.com report.
“An LMIA administered by the [TFW] program assesses many factors to ensure the protection of both the Canadian labor market and foreign workers,” she said.
“The government of Canada does not tolerate any abuse and/or misuse of workers of the program. Employers who are found non-compliant with TFW program conditions can face consequences such as administrative monetary penalties that range from a $500 penalty to a $100,000 fine per violation of up to $1 million per year and a temporary or permanent ban from the TFW program.”
Previously, Ottawa increased the fines it imposed on employers that have been found non-compliant with the rules under the TFW Program in the past fiscal year. During that time, ESDC completed 2,122 inspections under the program. From April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024, the federal government agency issued $2.1 million in Administrative Monetary Penalties (AMPs) to non-compliant employers.
In May, Ottawa started limiting the use of the TFW Program to employers who absolutely cannot find Canadians who can fill job openings.
Also in May, the Senate called for an end to employer-specific work permits under the TFW Program, noting that the program is “not working well for employers or workers”. In their recommendations, however, the Senate failed to seize on the temporary status of the workers themselves, which is the root cause of their vulnerabilities, according to one expert.
