The illegal sale of jobs to foreigners hoping to work in Canada has declined in the past year,

Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu says, due to increasing enforcement and policy changes to the

temporary foreign worker program (TFWP). “I have instructed my officials to make sure that we crack down on fraud in the system in every way,” she said. “Whether it’s consultants that are posting jobs that don’t exist, whether it’s consultants that are promising foreign workers opportunities in a Canadian

labour market that doesn’t exist, all of these things need to be taken seriously and cracked down on.”

The number of applications for a labour market impact assessment (LMIA), a federal government document that most businesses must receive before they can hire a foreign worker, has declined by 58 per cent from April to September this year compared to the same period in 2024.

The number of LMIA applications between April and September declined to 37,029 from 87,167 a year ago.

Hajdu said there’s a correlation between the decreasing number of LMIA applications and those who are trying to get LMIAs for selling them on the market.

“I suspect it’s because of the increased enforcement that we have been pursuing,” she said.

Employers can use the TFWP to hire foreign workers, but they often need to prove they aren’t able to find a worker for that specific position in Canada. If they can do that, they will receive an LMIA for that specific job, which essentially gives them an approval to hire a foreign worker.

Some groups, however, illegally sell LMIA-approved jobs to foreigners who are either outside the country or are already in Canada. These jobs come with additional points that help temporary workers boost their immigration scores and transition to permanent residents.

Industry insiders said the demand for LMIA-supported jobs in 2024 had increased because recent changes to Canada’s points-based immigration system for skilled workers made it tougher for prospective immigrants to qualify.

But the additional points associated with LMIA-supported jobs were removed last December.

Aside from increased enforcement and the removal of points, the government has also announced a reduction in the percentage of foreign workers a company can hire and limited the hiring of low-wage workers through the TFWP last year. Both moves also contributed to the decline in the overall number of LMIA applications.

The TFWP has been under scrutiny lately. Last month, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said he wanted the program scrapped and blamed it for flooding the market with cheap labour, which has made it harder for Canadians to find work.

Prime Minister Mark Carney in September said he wants the program to be more focused. Hajdu, who became the jobs minister in May after Carney came to power, said her team has taken additional steps to monitor the TFWP.

A couple of weeks after Poilievre called for the scrapping of the program Hajdu’s department issued its biggest-ever penalty as it

fined a New Brunswick-based seafood business $1 million and banned it from using the TFWP to hire foreign workers for 10 years for abusive workplace practices. In general, the fines imposed on businesses this year appear to be higher than usual.

The higher-than-usual penalties weren’t related to Poilievre’s comments, Hajdu said.

“Let’s be clear, enforcement has been increased and enforcement does take time,” she said. “There’s an investigative piece and component to a fine like a million dollars or a banning … those are significant and serious fines, and the government must take its time to do its due diligence to ensure that it’s applying the right penalties.”

Hajdu said her department has taken additional steps to invest in the “enforcement piece, use digital tools to enforce, and make sure that employers who are applying for temporary foreign workers truly are well-suited for the program.”

Canada’s unemployment rate has been climbing and the number of job vacancies is declining, but the unequal distribution of the labour force means there are certain regions, especially rural areas, that are finding it hard to fill jobs. Businesses in some of these regions have urged the government to ease restrictions on temporary foreign workers.

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Hajdu said the government is open to working with different sectors and regions where newcomers don’t tend to live in order to better understand their labour shortage.

“These are deep questions that need to be answered,” she said. “But, ultimately, at the end of the day, temporary foreign workers are not a sustainable long-term solution for things like the tourism industry or the food sector, or a number of other low-wage sectors. Those are conversations that have to happen with all levels of government.”