Forward Regulatory Plan: 2019 to 2021
Open Work Permit for Vulnerable Workers

Enabling Act: Immigration and Refugee Protection Act

Description

The primary objective of these amendments is to strengthen protections for migrant workers by providing workers in abusive employment situations in Canada with a distinct means to obtain authorization to work for other employers. The amendments would introduce a new authority for migration officers to issue open work permits to migrant workers and their family members in Canada when there are reasonable grounds to believe that the migrant worker who holds an employer-specific work permit is experiencing abuse, or is at risk of abuse, in the context of their employment. Persons applying for this permit would be exempt from paying the $155 work permit processing fee.

Regulatory cooperation efforts (domestic and international)

Regulatory cooperation efforts are not required.

Potential impacts on Canadians, including businesses

Employers complying with the terms of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and the International Mobility Program are not anticipated to bear costs as a result of these proposed amendments. No impacts on Canadians are anticipated.

Consultations

The regulatory amendments were pre-published in the Canada Gazette, Part 1, on December 15, 2018, followed by a 30-day comment period. The Department also undertook extensive stakeholder consultations, including an email invitation to a range of implicated stakeholders requesting their input by written submissions. These submissions were complemented by seven in-person consultations held across Canada, where the focus was on hearing the views of migrant worker support organizations and migrant workers themselves. These roundtables were held in Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax. The consultation period is now closed. Final publication in the Canada Gazette, Part II is anticipated in spring 2019.

Departmental contact information

Jordan Thompson
Acting Director, Temporary Resident Policy and Programs, Immigration Branch
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
Email: Jordan.Thompson@cic.gc.ca
Telephone: 613-437-5907

Date the regulatory initiative was first included in the Forward Regulatory Plan: April 1^st 2019