Labour market impact assessments: benefits plan versus transition plan

Background
Benefits plan
Transition plan
Comment

Background

In June 2017 Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) introduced the Global Talent Stream – a two-year pilot project providing Canadian employers expedited access to unique, specialised and highly skilled temporary foreign workers.

By using the Global Talent Stream, employers may apply for a labour market impact assessment (LMIA) under two categories:

• Category A – if the employer has been referred by one of the Global Talent Stream's designated partners and wants to hire an individual with unique and specialised talent; or
• Category B – if the employer is seeking to hire highly skilled foreign workers to fill roles in occupations specified on the Global Talent Occupations List.

LMIAs filed under the Global Talent Stream are fast tracked and simpler; there is no minimum recruitment requirement and most applications are processed in 10 business days instead of the usual 12-week processing period for regular LMIAs.

In addition, under the Global Talent Stream, employers must develop a benefits plan rather than a transition plan, which is required in a regular LMIA.

But what is the difference between these two types of plan?

Benefits plan

The benefits plan is used to:

• demonstrate an employer's commitment to activities that will have a lasting and positive effect on the Canadian labour market; and
• identify and track an employer's overall job creation, skills and training investments, which will benefit the Canadian economy through the employment of highly skilled global talent.

The benefits plan contains mandatory commitments that vary depending on the Global Talent Stream category that an employer uses and other complementary commitments.

Under Category A applications, employers must commit to creating jobs (directly or indirectly) for Canadians and permanent residents. Under Category B applications, they must commit to increasing skills and training investments for Canadians and permanent residents. In addition to these mandatory commitments, employers must also commit to two complementary benefits, which may include:

• creating jobs;
• investing in skills and training;
• transferring knowledge to Canadians and permanent residents;
• enhancing company performance; and
• implementing best practices or policies.

Transition plan

Employers that wish to hire temporary workers in high-wage roles by using a regular LMIA must submit a transition plan along with their application and must undertake to:

• recruit, retain and train Canadians and permanent residents; and
• reduce their reliance on the Temporary Foreign Worker Programme.

Therefore, in the transition plan, employers must clearly demonstrate how they will transition from a foreign workforce to a Canadian one during the temporary worker's employment.

In order to comply with ESDC requirements, employers must conduct:

• at least three distinct activities to recruit, retain or train Canadians or permanent residents in the occupation specified in the application; and
• one additional activity, conducted in collaboration with an organisation that serves under-represented groups (eg, immigrants, indigenous people, persons with disabilities or young people), which will identify potential candidates for recruitment or training purposes.

Further, rather than conducting these recruitment, retention or training activities for Canadians or permanent residents, employers may opt to implement a single activity; that is, facilitating the permanent resident process for the persons who are the subject of the LMIAs by offering them, for example:

• permanent roles;
• language training; or
• financial support for submitting a permanent residence application.

Once employers have chosen their activities, they must:

• explain in detail what will be involved;
• indicate planned dates (eg, dates of job fairs or a timeline for the permanent residence application); and
• estimate the number of applications that they expect to receive for each specific recruitment or training activity.

Employers may also be exempt from presenting a transition plan in cases of:

• caregiver or agricultural roles;
• occupations eligible for Quebec's facilitated LMIA process;
• roles with limited duration; or
• roles requiring unique skills.

Comment

Although the benefits plan and the transition plan differ significantly, they both aim to increase the number of Canadians or permanent residents employed in Canada by either:

• creating jobs (directly or indirectly) and increasing skills and training investments for Canadians and permanent residents (benefits plan); or
• transitioning towards a Canadian workforce by increasing recruitment or training activities, or by facilitating the permanent residence process for temporary foreign workers (transition plan).

For further information on this topic please contact Arlin Sahinyan at Fasken by telephone (+1 514 397 7400) or email (asahinyan@fasken.com). The Fasken website can be accessed at www.fasken.com.