On June 23, 2014, we wrote about how on June 20, 2014, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (“CIC”) and the Ministry of Economic and Social Development Canada (“ESDC”) announced significant reforms to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (“TFWP”). One of the changes was: Introduction of Transition Plans for High-Wage Positions Employers seeking to hire High-Wage TFWs will now be required to submit Transition Plans to demonstrate how they will increase efforts to hire Canadians, including through higher wages, investments in training and more active recruitment efforts from within Canada. An employer will have to provide a Transition Plan for each position that it is seeking a LMIA for. The requirement that employers provide a Transition Plan has taken effect immediately. Employers may be exempt from the Transition Plan requirement if they are hiring TFWs for positions which: require unique skills (ESDC has stated that two examples include nuclear physicist and senior executives such as Chief Executive Officer); have a limited duration of between: 1 and 120 days (ESDC has stated that two examples include emergency or warranty work repair technicians / mechanics); or more than 120 days to a maximum of 2 year (ESDC has stated that two examples include project-based … Read More