Visitors to Canada can no longer apply for work permits from within the country

In 2023, Canada’s population of non-permanent residents (NPRs) grew by more than half a million people, part of the steepest single-year rise in at least five decades of available data (Getty Images / mirsad sarajilic)

Visitors to Canada can no longer apply for work permits from within the country, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced Wednesday, bringing an early end to a pandemic-era program that temporarily expanded immigration access.

The move comes amid efforts to "recalibrate the number of temporary residents in Canada and preserve the integrity of the immigration system," a statement from the department reads.

"IRCC is also aware that some bad actors were using the policy to mislead foreign nationals into working in Canada without authorization," it continues.

The expanded-access policy was introduced four years ago this month, designed to address logistical challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and related travel restrictions by allowing visitors and temporary foreign workers (TFWs) to apply and renew permits without leaving the country.

The policy also allowed for those with recent work permits who had changed their immigration status to "visitor" to apply to work while awaiting a decision for a new work permit. Originally slated to expire at the end of February 2025, IRCC says it has elected to sunset the program early.

"COVID was such an extraordinary time, and some exceptional policies were put in place to respond to the … once-in-a-century circumstances," Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said at an unrelated press conference Thursday.

"Today, though, that is not the situation."

Immigration rates draw fire

In recent years, immigration has become among the most contentious political issues in the country amid rising populations of non-permanent residents, international students and temporary foreign workers – trends that critics say have strained Canada's infrastructure.

"We have to have a smaller population growth, there's no question about it," federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said at a press conference Thursday.

"We had a multi-generational consensus in immigration for, literally, decades before Trudeau came along … We brought in hard-working, law-abiding citizens in numbers that our housing market, our job market and our health-care system could absorb."

Speaking to the media at a cabinet retreat Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that following the pandemic, Canada "no longer needs as many temporary foreign workers."

"It's not fair to Canadians struggling to find a good job, and it's not fair to those temporary foreign workers."

Freeland echoed Trudeau's sentiments Thursday, stating her support for recently announced drawdown measures in non-permanent immigration, including halting TFW applications when unemployment is higher than six per cent and capping the proportion of TFWs in a given workplace at 10 per cent.

"If you as a business think you need more, we have some real concerns about your business model," Freeland said.

As of June, Canada's unemployment rate sits at 6.4 per cent.

The deputy prime minister, who also serves as minister of finance for the Trudeau Liberals, avoided stating any new policy commitments, but stressed the importance of balancing Canada's openness to immigration with the economic realities of the day.

"We are welcoming to new Canadians; that's a good thing," she said. "But we do have to be mindful not to have abuses … not to have business models built on low-wage, sometimes exploited, temporary foreign workers."

With files from The Canadian Press