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331 Main Street
Tofino, BC, V0R 2Z0
Canada

2507253153

Join our Advocacy

 

Our latest campaign is to urge the federal government to reinstate indefinite concurrent processing for LMIA-supported work permits. Sign the letter below to Ministers Diab and Hajdu expressing your concern. Just fill in your name and the name of your business and add your voice. Once the email draft opens, you can add your business's specific story and how you have been impacted by recent changes to immigration policy.

Send a Letter to Ministers Diab and Hajdu

Fill in your details below, then click Send Letter — it will open in your email app, ready to send.

Dear Ministers,

On behalf of [Business Name], I am writing to urge the Government of Canada to reinstate indefinite concurrent processing for work permit applications tied to a pending Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA).

Tofino's economy depends on tourism, and our ability to operate through the visitor season depends on a stable, predictable workforce. Like many hospitality, food service and accommodation businesses on the west coast of Vancouver Island, we rely on the Temporary Foreign Worker Program to fill positions we cannot otherwise staff in a remote, seasonal labour market with a severe local housing shortage.

Since IRCC capped concurrent processing at 60 days in January 2023, Service Canada's LMIA processing times have grown well beyond its posted standard of 71 to 79 business days, often reaching 4.5 to 5 months in the experience of Tofino businesses. Combined with mandatory advertising periods, that can mean 6 to 7 months of lead time to fill a single position. When the 60-day window lapses before a decision, the work permit is refused and the worker loses status, and in British Columbia provincial health coverage, while the employer is left with the vacancy the LMIA was meant to fill. This penalizes employers and workers for delays neither controls.

We respectfully ask that you:

  1. Reinstate indefinite concurrent processing until ESDC reaches a final decision on the underlying LMIA, so that no work permit is refused solely because the government's own LMIA queue has exceeded 60 days.
  2. Hold ESDC to its posted service standards by refunding the $1,000 application fee and fast-tracking associated work permits when it falls short.
  3. Establish a direct communication pipeline between ESDC and IRCC so that officers can verify an LMIA is in an ESDC backlog and pause work permit refusals.
  4. Create regional or sectoral exemptions from the 60-day limit for rural and remote communities if a blanket reversal is not feasible.

We would welcome the opportunity to discuss this further and appreciate your attention to the needs of remote coastal business communities.

Sincerely,

[Full Name]

This will open your email app (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, etc.) with the letter ready to send to the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship and the Minister of Jobs and Families, with Gord Johns, MP, copied.