Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Intellectual Property Law Blogs -> Video Game Law Blog

Intellectual Property Law

: Video Game Law Blog

Help Save the IT Work Permit Category

By Chris Bennett, Tudor Carsten, Michael R. Coburn, Sarah Dale-Harris, Pablo Guzman, Danielle (Dani) Lemon, Chris Metcalfe and David Spratley

HRSDC intends to eliminate the Information Technology Workers category any day. Provide your support for saving the IT category - Information Technology Workers

The IT Category - Advantages to Avoiding LMO Applications

The standard work permit process for temporary foreign workers is a two-step process:

* The first step involves the prospective employer applying to Service Canada for a Labour Market Opinion ("LMO").

* The second step involves the prospective employee applying for the work permit.

For a few occupations, HRSDC has issued a national LMO to recognize that critical labour shortages in these occupations are experienced throughout Canada. As a result, employers are not required to apply for individual LMOs. One such national confirmation is for Information Technology Workers who fall within one of seven prescribed occupations, including Embedded Systems Software Designers, Software Developers - Services and Software Products Developers.

It is advantageous to prospective employers to not have to apply for an LMO. Reasons include:

1. Employers do not have to show comprehensive efforts recruiting qualified Canadians. This is important in light of the recent developments which make LMO applications increasingly uncertain. Service Canada adopted an arguably overly restrictive approach in January 2009 that continues to the present time. Service Canada is overemphasizing hiring Canadians and underemphasizing other important factors like job creation/retention and skills and knowledge transfer which can result from the hiring of a particular foreign worker.

2. Employers do not have to wait for the LMO application to be processed. The processing time is dynamic and gaming companies can not rely on processing times remaining at the current 2-4 weeks.

3. With the elimination of LMO "extensions" in April 2009, an employer is required to make in essence a new LMO application when wanting to support a work permit extension, including demonstrating that new recruitment efforts were conducted. The company will be required to lay off the foreign worker if it can not secure a new LMO, as may happen due to reasons cited in item 1 above. There are situations where Service Canada can be convinced to waive the recruitment requirement, but this is very much case-by-case and can not be assumed.

Proposal to Eliminate the IT Category

HRSDC has announced that it intends to eliminate the IT category, likely during the first few months of 2010. Particular industry organizations have also apparently been notified. Justification provided by HRSDC for eliminating the IT category is questionable.

The IT category should continue in order to facilitate the recruitment of highly talented and skilled temporary foreign workers. Elimination of the IT category will adversely impact various industries affected in Canada in terms of maintaining their strong position in the global market. If required to apply for individual LMOs, based on current trends, companies will be prevented from hiring talented and skilled foreign workers, and as a result will be forced to either carry out projects with compromised staffing or even forego certain projects due to multinational management deciding to develop projects abroad.

If you support the IT category, let us know and we will pass along said support to the various immigration authorities, federally and provincially.

Bookmarks: Delicious, Digg , Facebook, Google, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Yahoo

Full post as published by Video Game Law Blog on March 04, 2010 (boomark / email).