The Government of Canada has released its budget for 2013 (“Budget 2013″). Budget 2013 contains several announcements of changes to immigration programs which the Government of Canada will introduce this year, including (my editorial comments in maroon): Providing $42-million in funding to support enhanced program capacity within the Temporary Resident program, and giving the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada (the “Minister“) the ability to set fees in a timely and efficient manner. (Budget 2013 actually refers to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada as the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism. I’m not sure if this means that the Department is about to change its name or if it is a typo.) Providing $44-million in funding over two years to improve the processing of Citizenship applications, and allowing the Minister to set fees in a timely and efficient manner. (This is fantastic. Processing times have ballooned to more than four years in many cases.) Amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations to restrict the identification of non-official languages as job requirements when hiring through the Temporary Foreign Worker process. (Not sure about this.. in a global economy some positions require fluency in languages other than English or French.) Introduce processing fees for Labour Market … Read More
Service Canada Regional Reference #6 – Lodge Owners
The document below is Service Canada Regional Reference Material – Reference #6 – Lodge Owners, released on November 14, 2012 (“Reference #6“). Reference #6 provides guidance to Service Canada officers regarding the processing of Labour Market Opinions for partial Owner/Operator Labour Market Opinions where the business is a hunting, fishing, or leisure lodge, camp, or resort. It recommends that officers approve applications where the employment of the partial Owner / Operator results in job creation for Canadians and permanent residents. However, where the employment of the partial Owner / Operator does not result in job creation for Canadians and permanent residents, it recommends refusal. Please note that Reference #6 is a copy of an official work by the Government of Canada which was obtained through an Access to Information and Privacy Act Request, and to my knowledge is not otherwise publicly available. While I believe that Regional Reference #6 is still current, I cannot be assured of this. The reproduction of this document has not occurred with the affiliation of the Government of Canada, nor with the endorsement of the Government of Canada.
CIC Operational Bulletin 503 – Volunteering on a Farm
Citizenship and Immigration Canada (“CIC“) has released Operational Bulletin 503 – Clarification of Volunteering in Relation to Farm Work (“OB-503“). The Temporary Foreign Worker Manual provides that if a tourist wishes to stay on a family farm and work part time just for room and board for a short period then this is not considered work, and a work permit is not required. Work on a farm that is expected to last beyond four weeks, however, requires a work permit. OB-503 elaborates on this. It specifies that the volunteering on the farm must be incidental to the reason the individual seeks to enter Canada. Farm work cannot be the main reason for entering Canada. An individual must have other plans for the majority of their time in Canada (such as tourism, visiting family, visiting friends, etc.) It also specifies that if the foreign national seeks to volunteer at a commercial farm, than a work permit is required. A commercial farm is a commercial venture undertaken with the expectation of profit. A non-commercial farm generally means a farm where the farm family provides much of the capital and labour for the farm, and where the production of agricultural products is to provide for … Read More
Can People Working Without Status Enforce Contracts?
The Ontario Labour Relations Board (the “OLRB“) has just released a fascinating decision which involves the interplay between immigration and employment law. The case involved a German foreign national who entered into an employment agreement with Essar Steel Algoma (the “Employer“) prior to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (“CIC“) issuing him a work permit to work for the company. Things did not work out between the Employer and the foreign national, and the Employer terminated the relationship. The United Steelworks of America (the “Union“) filed a grievance, and the issue of when the foreign national became an employee of the Employer arose. The OLRB decision involved numerous factual determinations involving contested issues of when the foreign national alerted the Employer that he was a foreign national who required a work permit, whether the Employer promised the foreign national that obtaining a Labour Market Opinion (“LMO“) would be easy, and whether the Employer rescinded the foreign worker’s job offer upon the LMO being rejected. Lurking in the background of these factual disputes was the legal issue of “when does a foreign national become an employee of an employer?” The Union argued that as a matter of contract law a person becomes an … Read More
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