Canada’s fast-track program for skilled foreign workers did not slow down in 2022, even as hiring freezes and layoffs wracked sections of the innovation economy in the latter part of the year. While software and internet firms pulled back, visual-effects firms and IT consulting companies remain in expansion mode, using the Global Talent Stream (GTS) to bring in experienced or specialized staff, as technical talent remains at a premium.

Between January and September 2022, employers were approved to fill 6,059 positions via the program, according to The Logic’s analysis of data released by Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC). That’s more than twice the number in the same three-quarter period the previous year. Technical talent was in particularly high demand, with computer programmers, interactive-media developers, software engineers and designers accounting for just over half the total number of positions approved.

Employers can use the GTS, launched in June 2017 under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, to fill in-demand roles or bring on experienced specialists. The federal government promised to process companies’ initial applications and then new hires’ work permits in two weeks each—significantly faster than the lengthy waits that tech firms had long complained were costing them top talent. In return, employers must pledge to hire or train Canadian citizens and permanent residents, and fulfill other commitments that benefit the domestic labour market.

The program is particularly popular with visual-effects studios and IT consulting firms, which together accounted for 13 of the top 20 users in the first nine months of 2022.

Montreal-headquartered Rodeo FX currently has 86 open postings on its job board, adding to an artistic staff of nearly 900. Industry-wide competition for workers is pitched, with big-budget movies, streaming-service shows and ad spots all needing digital enhancement, said Romain Puig, a talent-acquisition manager at the studio. “It’s almost that you don’t have any clouds in the skies that are real anymore—everything is done by VFX.”

Rodeo has been approved to fill 134 positions for graphic designers, illustrators, interactive media developers and others via the GTS since October 2017, including 38 in the first three quarters of last year. While the firm can scout junior talent domestically, it has used the fast-track program to bring in more experienced artists from Europe, Australia, India and other parts of the world. 

Studios compete hard for those senior hires, so “we want to be able to bring them as quickly as possible,” said Alexandre Cimon, Rodeo’s in-house immigration lawyer; while ESDC has recently been taking about three weeks rather than the promised two to process initial applications, the delay is not hampering recruitment. ESDC and Immigration, Citizenship and Refugees Canada did not answer questions about processing times.

While turnover tends to be high in the VFX industry, Rodeo focuses on retention, said Véronique Hébert Jean-Mary, vice-president of global human resources, including helping the foreign workers it brings in with the paperwork to get permanent residence. Cimon said he’d like to see the GTS expanded to a greater variety of technical positions in animation. 

India’s Mphasis was also a major user of the GTS last year. In June 2021, the Bengaluru-headquartered IT-services firm announced it would set up its Canadian base in Calgary, and create up to 1,000 jobs over the following two years. “For our U.S. clients, this is a near-shore opportunity,” said country head Dave Cassie, while the firm is also looking to sign up more local customers in sectors like financial services and logistics.

Mphasis now employs just over 200 workers in Canada. “We started by bringing in a lot of people from India,” said Cassie, noting those employees come to Calgary with knowledge of the company and of the U.S. businesses they’ll initially be serving. Between April and September 2022, ESDC authorized Mphasis to fill 217 positions via the GTS. (The department’s data tracks the number of roles for which employers have received approval, not the number of workers they have brought in.)

With that base in place, Mphasis plans to ramp up hiring. It’s recruiting locally for Java and full-stack developers, data engineers and architects, as well as workers with AI and quantum expertise. “We need to recruit locally in Canada … [and] we have a heavy emphasis on training and internships,” said Cassie.

Employers have kept GTS use up even as some firms froze hiring or laid off staff amid public- and venture-market slumps and recession fears, although many of the cuts have been on non-technical teams. Some firms feature on both lists. Seattle-headquartered Amazon’s Canadian subsidiaries have received approval to fill 852 positions via the GTS since January 2018, including 354 in the first three nine months of 2022. Earlier this month, CEO Andy Jassy announced the firm would cut over 18,000 roles company-wide. 

Amazon did not directly answer The Logic’s questions about how many workers in Canada would be affected by the layoffs, or whether those losing their jobs would include people brought in under the GTS. The firm uses the program “to fill certain high-skilled corporate and technology roles in Canada, although the majority of local roles have been filled by domestic candidates,” said spokesperson Kristin Gable.