Ottawa reports increased non-compliance amid TFWP crackdown

A greater share of employers have been breaking the rules of Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP).

Of 1,488 compliance inspections completed from April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026, 12% of employers were found to be non-compliant, up from 10% for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, according to a press release published by Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) on July 9, 2026.

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Employer fines more than doubled over the same period, to $10.2 million, up from $4.5 million, according to the press release.

Employers were fined for program violations relating to areas such as workplace health and safety, employment standards legislation, and job offer integrity.

ESDC affirmed the government’s commitment to ensuring that the TFWP, which has come under fire in a period of rising unemployment, operates only as “a last resort option for employers who cannot find qualified Canadians and permanent residents to fill job vacancies.”

All TFWP work permits and renewals must be authorized by ESDC, which issues an employer a positive or neutral Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) upon being satisfied that the hiring of a foreign worker is expected to have no negative impact on Canada's domestic labour market.

The press release is ESDC’s most recent report following its tightening of compliance activities in 2024, which also marked the introduction of an annual admissions target for temporary residents, along with a moratorium on low-wage LMIAs in regions with higher unemployment.

A job falls under the low-wage stream of the TFWP if it pays less than 120% of the regional median: $36 per hour in Alberta or Ontario, as of the time of writing.

Earlier this year, the government mandated that LMIAs show youth recruitment efforts, and doubled the minimum advertising period from four weeks to eight weeks.

Officers processing LMIAs must now also apply more exacting standards to applications in high-risk sectors, according to the press release.

At the Liberal caucus last September, Prime Minister Mark Carney said that the TFWP “must have a focused approach that targets specific, strategic sectors, and needs in specific regions.”

This March, Ottawa greenlighted an expansion of the low-wage TFWP stream in rural areas: within participating provinces and territories, rural employers across all sectors can now hire foreign workers for up to 15% of their workforce, up from the previous cap of 10%.

This year’s TFWP admissions have fallen by more than half compared to 2024: from 31,565 to 14,655 for the period of January through April, the most recent data available on the government’s website.

The federal government’s annual admissions target for the TFWP for 2026 is 60,000, accounting for about a quarter of the top-line target of 230,000 worker admissions.

The remaining 170,000 work permit admissions for 2026 are earmarked for the International Mobility Program (IMP), which operates under a mandate that includes cultural development, and through which the issuance of a work permit does not require an LMIA.

IMP admissions have fallen by 69% this year relative to 2024, from 142,805 to 43,705.

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