Hi gang,
To those with OWP's, or who have applied for OWP's. We encountered an interesting situation that I want to make everyone aware of. We are hoping to avoid any one else for encountering this ... situation.
Back story:
My wife got an OWP in June. She was looking for work in July and beginning of August. My mother-in-law was scheduled to visit for the last week of August - first week of September. During 'the occupation', my wife was not intending on working, and was going to spend that time with her mom. Well, she was offered a job from a local company that she had already interviewed at during 'the occupation'. She accepted. The contract (I reviewed) seemed fine -- wage was a little low and no benefits, but my job offsets all of that. So it seemed to be fine. Start date was....today.
The now:
Today my wife started talking to me about having to close a relationship with a local employment services for immigrants because her employer needs her to sign some paperwork. My interest became piqued, because I was aware of a program that funds on the job training. This program is called the Canada Job Grant. It is offered as a means for small, medium and large companies to be able to subsidize training to build the workforce they need to be successful. This program is offered as partnership between the feds and the provincial governments. In our case, it would be the Canada-Ontario Job Grant.
I started to ask a little more, and her employer calls. Imagine: 8pm, a chief accountant from a financial services company calling a fresh employee to talk about her first day. When she asked about the paperwork, he tried to gloss over what it was, and instead just state, "It's not a social assistance, it's something that all companies do now to outsource training."
Ya....right....
She did tell him that she is waiting for her PR, and does have limits with respect to what she can sign. He seemed to accept that on the phone -- we will see if this is a reality or not.
So I did some digging, and sure enough, it seems like this is what they are trying to force her into. The program is only eligible for Canadian Citizens, Permanent Residents, or Protected Persons. Not Temporary Workers. This is an explicit distinction made. The program was actually introduced in 2013 to help to provide the training to Canadians, and to help make them marketable to those companies who would normally hire Temporary Foreign Workers.
My wife was smart not to sign anything just yet. I have provided instruction to ask them to take it home to talk to me about it.
Conclusion of this rant
Be cautious of employers. If they ask you to sign something that sounds like a grant to get you trained for free, or to have the training 'outsourced', ask questions!
To the sponsors:
This would appear to be something that can be taxable. Therefore, it may be considered a type of social assistance, as the applicant must be approved. I would expect the application would be denied, but I am unsure if any details of the application would be forwarded to IRCC.
More details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_Job_Grant
Good luck folks, and Happy Job Hunting!
. We will see that in the notes anyway I am sure.
