Mr. Speaker, with regard to (a), as of April 30, 2022, the current monthly average processing time for employers seeking labour market impact assessments, or LMIAs, from Service Canada to support the entry of temporary foreign workers, TFWs, was 37 business days. The processing times vary between program streams and by processing regions.
With regard to (b), as of April 29, 2022, 11,044 LMIA applications from 7,421 employers are awaiting a decision.
With regard to (c), to address the high program demand—which, as a reference, is 49% higher than forecast for April 2022—reduce the inventory and improve processing times, the program has increased its resources and since January has doubled its productivity, with approximately 2,000 files processed per week. As a result of these efforts, the national average processing time went from 44 business days in February 2022 to 37 business days in April 2022. The department has seen continuous improvement, largely due to the implementation of processing improvements, including streamlining and simplification measures.
With regard to (d), average processing times of the top 10 sectors of LMIA applications assessed in April 2022 were as follows: Full-service restaurants and limited-service eating places, 35 business days; computer services and related services, 23 business days; private households, 25 business days; cattle ranching and farming, 33 business days; general freight trucking, 66 business days; vegetable and melon farming, 24 business days; fruit and tree nut farming, 21 business days; residential building construction, 40 business days; building finishing contractors, 32 business days; services to buildings and dwellings, 49 business days.
Average processing times of the top 10 occupations of LMIA applications assessed in April 2022 were as follows: General farm workers, 28 business days; cooks, 34 business days; food service supervisors, 35 business days; home child care providers, 25 business days; transportation truck drivers, 80 business days; retail sales supervisors, 37 business days; administrative assistants, 34 business days; software engineers and designers, 15 business days; computer programmers and interactive media developers, 19 business days; carpenters, 39 business days.
Sectors, as based on the North American industry classification system, or NAICS, and occupations, as based on the national occupational classification, or NOC, are only entered into the LMIA system when the assessment has started or a decision has been rendered. Therefore, as of April 29, 2022, only 25% of all current applications awaiting a decision have a sector and occupation assigned to them. Processing times listed for the sectors and occupations just mentioned are for completed files.
With regard to (e), the program had approximately 400 full-time equivalent, FTE, employees assigned to it in 2020. By the end of April 2022, program capacity exceeded 500 FTEs, and 60 additional bilingual resources are expected to be hired in the short term.
With regard to (f), information on employees on leave without pay by program is not available.