Employers with multiple small work locations in Canada can now hire additional temporary foreign workers following recent changes in regulations by the Canadian federal government.

Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) announced updates on August 18, 2026, allowing affected employers to exceed the usual 10% or 20% workforce threshold for low-wage temporary foreign workers.

Previously, employers could hire a maximum of 10% low-wage temporary foreign workers under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), or 20% for high-demand sectors like healthcare, construction, and food production.

Under the new rules, employers can now hire one or two low-wage temporary foreign workers per work location with fewer than 10 employees, with the two-worker limit applicable to employers in high-demand sectors.

This change is a result of using the number of employees at each individual work location to calculate the workforce cap, particularly benefiting employers with fewer than 10 employees nationwide.

ESDC has detailed this new calculation method in the ‘Variation: Employers with fewer than 10 employees at a given work location’ section of its Program requirements for low-wage positions.

Positions paying less than 120% of the regional median wage are considered low-wage under the TFWP guidelines. Jobs meeting or exceeding this wage threshold can be filled through the high-wage stream of the TFWP, which is not subject to workforce limitations.

In Ontario, the current wage threshold is $36.92 per hour.

ESDC strictly enforces the cap on low-wage work permits as part of the approval process for employers seeking to hire or retain workers through the TFWP.

Employers must apply for and receive a positive or neutral Labour Market Impact Assessment for foreign workers to obtain or renew work permits under the TFWP.