Employment and Social Development Canada (“ESDC”) recently made changes to the advertising requirements for employers using the Job Bank for the purposes of a Labour Marker Impact Assessment (“LMIA”).

ESDC has indicated that these measures are intended to strengthen the integrity of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (“TFWP”) by confirming that Canadian citizens and permanent residents are given a fair opportunity to apply before an offer of employment is provided to a foreign national.

Main Changes & Key Reminders

1) Direct Apply

Pursuant to these changes, employers must keep the “Direct Apply” application method activated and review and consider applications submitted through that method as part of the employer’s recruitment efforts.

Job Bank indicates that Direct Apply is enabled by default, and allows employers to:

• Manage and store all resumes submitted through the platform; and
• View and download those resumes for their records.

If Direct Apply is disabled, or where applications submitted under Direct Apply are not downloaded, reviewed and considered,  employers will be considered not to have met the TFWP recruitment requirements for LMIA purposes.

Employers are further expected to download the resumes submitted through Job Bank within 21 days of receipt. Failure to do so will result in suspension or removal of the Job Bank advertisement, with an additional waiting period of 14-days, before a new advertisement may be posted.  

2) Primary Officer Requirement

In addition to the above, Job Bank now requires that every employer file contain an identified Primary Officer. This person must be a business owner or director as registered with the Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”).

Where an employer file does not include a CRA-registered owner or director in this role, Job Bank may place the file (and any associated advertisements) in suspended status until the information is provided. In practice, this means that job advertisements posted for LMIA recruitment purposes will not be advertised, or will be removed, until the Primary Officer has been added to and approved on the employer file.

Employers can add the owner or director by signing-in to Job Bank for Employers, opening the relevant employer file, and adding the individual under the “Users” tab, as set out in Job Bank’s registration instructions.

If you have any questions about this topic or any other questions relating to workplace law, please do not hesitate to contact Mathews Dinsdale Lawyer.

The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Joyce Gerges, an Articling Student in the firm’s Toronto office.