Ottawa Expands Low-Wage Work-Permit Freeze to Six More Cities as Unemployment Ticks Up

Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) has added Halifax, Fredericton, Kingston, St. Catharines–Niagara, Regina and Lethbridge to the list of labour markets where it will refuse to process low-wage Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) applications. The move—effective October 9—brings the total number of affected census metropolitan areas (CMAs) to 30 nationwide. Under the policy, first introduced in September 2024, employers in a designated CMA cannot hire new low-wage temporary foreign workers unless the position pays at least 120 per cent of the provincial or territorial median hourly wage. The freeze is intended to push businesses to recruit locally when unemployment exceeds six per cent. All six newly-added CMAs crossed that threshold in the latest quarterly data, with Regina posting 6.7 per cent and Halifax 6.1 per cent. Conversely, Kamloops and Chilliwack have been removed from the freeze after jobless rates dipped below the trigger level. ESDC will review the list again on January 8, 2027. In the meantime, sectors such as agriculture, construction, food manufacturing and health-care remain exempt, and employers may still request case-specific exemptions for truly temporary, highly-mobile roles like travelling fair workers. For global mobility teams, the practical impact is two-fold. First, staffing plans that rely on low-wage TFWs in the newly-restricted CMAs must pivot to higher wages or alternative streams such as provincial nominee programs. Second, foreign workers already in-country whose permits are expiring can still apply for extensions, and IRCC recently doubled the concurrent-processing window to 60 days, buying employers a little time. Nevertheless, companies should audit current LMIA pipelines immediately to avoid refusals and project delays. The expansion signals Ottawa’s determination to tighten access to low-wage foreign labour in regions where domestic unemployment is rising, even as certain high-skill categories remain exempt. Expect continued geographic churn in the freeze list every quarter, forcing mobility leaders to integrate local labour-market data into workforce-planning models on an ongoing basis.