In June 2016, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) created a work permit category whereby French-speaking foreign workers in NOC 0, A, or B (high skill) occupations, destined for a province other than Quebec, could be hired without the need for a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA). Note that this work permit category is available to French-speaking foreign workers whether or not the actual position in question requires the use of French. [LMIA exemption Code C16]
At the time of creation of the program, one of the requirements was that the foreign national had “been recruited through a francophone immigration promotional event coordinated between the federal government and francophone-minority communities”.
The reality was that this requirement became perfunctory (and as such, essentially meaningless) as the requirement could be fulfilled by, for example, simply sending job offer information through to the Canadian embassy in Paris, France, whether or not any action resulted from that offer. (Without expounding on the full rationale behind this procedure, it was designed to get Canadian employers linked with foreign recruitment services.)
The government has now removed this requirement. Though they have left wording still ‘encouraging’ such recruitment, the requirement is no longer mandatory. As such, employers outside Quebec seeking to hire French-speaking foreign workers can now simply proceed with the filing of their Offer of Employment on through the Employer Portal, and otherwise following through on application procedures, as would be the case for any non-LMIA work permit.
The information in this article is for general purposes only, and not intended as legal advice for any particular situation.