Quebec employers no longer must recruit locally to hire foreign workers for range of jobs

While the Quebec Facilitated IT program came to an end on February 24th, the 7 affected professions are now part of a newly announced facilitated labour market assessment process. The new process, in effect now, includes a much broader range of 44 occupations, both in high tech and from other fields. It is an accelerated way for employers to hire foreign workers in Quebec, which importantly does not require employers to show local recruitment efforts.

The list of the 44 occupations that are part of this new process is available here.

While employers do not need to show local recruitment efforts for the 44 occupations now governed under this new process, they are still expected to make a best effort to hire a Canadian, and the position’s wages must be consistent with the Canadian norm.

In all other respects, employers in Quebec seeking to hire a temporary foreign worker must meet the requirements of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP).

The LMO and the application form for the Quebec Certificate of Acceptance (CAQ) for the affected occupations now only has to be submitted to the Quebec Ministry of Immigration and Cultural Communities (MICC). The MICC will see to it themselves that the proper information about the application is transmitted to ESDC/Service Canada.

The LMO application must be marked Priority/Facilitated Process.

Since proving local recruitment efforts were made by the employer can be difficult and time consuming, the 44 occupations that are now exempt from this requirement should be able to be filled much more quickly and easily by temporary foreign workers.

For occupations not on this list of exemptions, employers must still adhere to the regular foreign worker requirements proving that no Canadian is able to fill a particular position.