Canada Expands Low-Wage Foreign Worker Access for Multi-Site Employers

The Temporary Foreign Worker Program limits how many low-wage foreign workers you can employ at each work location. For a business running several small sites, that limit has often meant no room to hire at all.

On August 18, 2026, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) changed how the limit is counted, and small locations that could not support a hire before may be able to now. The rule is narrow, and an error in the count can lead to a refused application. BorderPass gives Canadian employers step-by-step guidance and a review by a licensed Canadian immigration lawyer before filing.

The cap is the share of staff at one work location that can be low-wage foreign workers. The limit is 10% of the people at that site, or 20% in certain in-demand sectors. ESDC applies it so Canadians and permanent residents get first consideration. BorderPass helps employers work out which cap applies to each location.

A job counts as low-wage when the offered wage falls below the provincial or territorial wage threshold. In Ontario, that threshold is $36.92 an hour for LMIAs received as of July 17, 2026. Jobs paying at or above it fall under the high-wage stream, which this cap does not touch.

ESDC changed how the cap is counted at small sites. A location with fewer than 10 employees is now counted on its own, instead of being added to your company total. The formula treats the site as having 10 employees, which works out to 1 low-wage worker at a 10% cap and 2 at a 20% cap. BorderPass reviews your locations against the new count.

Before the change, this small-workforce formula applied only to companies with fewer than 10 employees nationwide. Take a business with six staff at each of four branches. All 24 used to count against a single cap, which left no room for a low-wage hire anywhere. Each branch now counts separately, and each may support a worker.

The 20% cap covers four industry categories plus certain in-home caregiver roles, and ESDC defines them by industry code rather than by name. Everything else is capped at 10%. The distinction decides whether a small site can support one worker or two, so BorderPass maps each role to the category ESDC will actually apply.

Shorthand like "health care" or "food production" is broader than the official list. A restaurant is not food manufacturing, and a clinic is not a hospital. BorderPass confirms which code applies to your business before the cap is calculated.

Possibly. For many small businesses, the cap was the reason this stream was closed to them, and counting it site by site may open a door that was shut. Starting from scratch brings requirements that arrive before the application does, and BorderPass guides first-time employers through each of them. A Pathway Assessment gives you a lawyer-reviewed picture of the work routes open to you.

Employers who have not hired a temporary foreign worker in the past six years are reviewed by ESDC. You have to show that your workplace is free of abuse, and provide documents proving the business and the job offer are real. You also have to advertise the job for at least eight weeks in a row before applying, including outreach to youth and other methods that reach underrepresented groups, and keep those records for six years. BorderPass helps Canadian employers work through this without guessing at what ESDC expects, and can walk you through the range of pathways for hiring foreign workers if the low-wage stream turns out to be the wrong fit.

Employers in high-unemployment cities gain nothing from this change. Since September 2024, ESDC has refused to process low-wage LMIA applications for jobs in census metropolitan areas where unemployment is 6% or higher. A small site in one of those areas stays closed to low-wage hiring. BorderPass helps you check which of your locations are affected.

A separate measure runs in the other direction. Since March 13, 2026, provinces have been able to raise the low-wage cap to 15% for employers in some rural areas, under their own conditions. BorderPass keeps the overlapping rules in one view so you know which ones reach your business.

A miscount or a misclassified sector can lead to a refused LMIA. That means no work permit for your intended hire, and a $1,000 processing fee that is not refunded on a negative decision. ESDC checks the cap as part of approval, and may ask for payroll records. BorderPass builds the application so the count holds up.

The headcount at each location includes full-time and part-time staff, foreign workers already approved but not yet started, and the positions you are requesting on the application itself. Part-time staff, meaning anyone averaging under 30 hours a week, count as half a person each. Any one of these getting missed changes the cap.

The cap is one requirement among several, and each one can undo a hire on its own. You pay the worker's round-trip travel, make sure housing costs less than 30% of their pre-tax income, and buy private health insurance until provincial coverage starts. Wages are reviewed every year against the prevailing rate.

For an employer coordinating hires across several locations, these obligations multiply site by site. BorderPass assesses your hiring pathway, guides you through building the application, and puts a licensed Canadian immigration lawyer on your file before you submit, at a fraction of the cost of a traditional firm. Whether this is your first hire under the program or your twentieth, BorderPass helps Canadian employers hire foreign workers legally and efficiently.