The temporary foreign worker program is expanding rapidly in Quebec. The number of foreign workers in low-wage jobs and in agriculture has tripled since 2015.
Our analysis shows that in one year, between October 2021 and the end of September 2022, nearly 7,000 companies in Quebec have asked to hire this workforce for this type of position.
More than 20,000 applications for approval were for agricultural workers. Agriculture still forms the majority of demand, but more and more postings are for other sectors: food processing (2,309), landscaping (989), cooks (579) and nurse aides , orderlies or orderlies (508).
In the map below, the dots represent positions approved with positive Labor Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs) between October 1, 2021 and September 30, 2022.
Locations are for information only, as there is no specific address in the public files of the Department of Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC). Company names are entered manually by officials of this ministry and may be subject to minor errors during data entry.
Before applying for work permits from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), companies must obtain the right to hire through the temporary foreign worker program.
Each LMIA includes a number of positions subject to approval by ESDC, which makes this data public.
This preliminary step therefore represents hiring intentions on the part of companies. The vast majority of these intentions turn into work permits and temporary workers in the territory. For example, the map shows that over 36,000 positions were approved in one year. For the same period, the four quarters that extend between the end of 2021 and 2022, 35,380 new work permits or extensions were issued by IRCC.
The expansion of this program is more broadly part of a major shift towards temporary immigration exposed by The duty. The large group of temporary workers, including this specific category of low-wage and agricultural temporary workers, has exploded in recent years. It represented at least three times more than permanent residents in 2021 and 2022.
See also | The big shift in immigration