Employment and Social Development Canada’s quarterly labour-market update has expanded the refusal-to-process list for low-wage Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs) from 26 to 30 census metropolitan areas, effective 9 October 2026 through 7 January 2027. Halifax, Fredericton, Kingston, St Catharines-Niagara, Regina and Lethbridge join the freeze, while Kamloops and Chilliwack exit thanks to improved unemployment rates. Under the 2024 rule, Service Canada automatically rejects any low-wage LMIA filed in a frozen city if the local unemployment rate is 6 % or higher and the offered wage falls below the provincial median. High-wage, agricultural, and essential-services positions remain exempt. Employers receive a refusal letter but no processing fee is charged. The policy aims to steer firms toward domestic hiring or higher-wage streams, but it also forces time-sensitive employers—especially in food processing and hospitality—to rethink staffing. Mobility managers should map current and planned deployments against the updated list; moving a project 30 km outside a CMA boundary or raising the wage into the high-wage bracket can restore eligibility. Because the freeze list refreshes every quarter, global mobility programmes must build regular LMIA-eligibility checks into their workforce planning cycles, particularly for January tax-season deployments when the next update is due.
Source: IRCC.com
