How to prepare your Labour Market Benefits Plan

Reviewed October 28, 2026 against current ESDC guidance. Global Talent Stream requirements have changed since this guide was first published in 2019. Figures and requirements are as of the review date.

The short version

If you are submitting a Global Talent Stream application for the first time, you need a Labour Market Benefits Plan. It is usually the part that decides how smoothly the application goes.

The plan requires three benefits: one mandatory benefit set by your category, and two complementary benefits you choose. Each needs an activity and a measurable target.

These are commitments, not a form. You can be asked to show progress against them afterwards. Choose activities you were going to do anyway.

What is a Labour Market Benefits Plan?

The Global Talent Stream is unusual among LMIA streams because it has no minimum recruitment requirement.

Because there is no recruitment test, the government asks for something else instead: a commitment to activities that create jobs, training, or other opportunities for Canadians and permanent residents. That commitment is the Labour Market Benefits Plan. See ESDC's Global Talent Stream requirements.

When do you need one?

In most cases you only need to prepare a plan the first time you submit a Global Talent Stream application.

If you already have a plan in place, you may be asked to update or revise your commitments when you apply again for additional workers.

Mandatory and complementary benefits

Two types, and the distinction matters because one is chosen for you.

You need one mandatory benefit and two complementary benefits.

The mandatory benefit is set by your category. If you are applying under Category A, your mandatory benefit is creating jobs for Canadians and permanent residents. If you are applying under Category B, which most employers use, your mandatory benefit is increasing skills and training investments for Canadians and permanent residents. See which Global Talent Stream category applies to you.

The two complementary benefits are yours to choose, and they cannot repeat the mandatory benefit. ESDC's current guidance groups them into five areas: job creation, investment in skills and training, transferring knowledge to Canadians and permanent residents, enhanced company performance, and implementing best practices or policies as an employer. The examples below (the nine from the original article) all fall within those areas.

• increasing the number of Canadians and permanent residents employed full-time and part-time by the employer;
• establishing or enhancing educational partnerships with local or regional post-secondary institutes or with other organizations that are supporting skills and training (for example, providing post-secondary institutes with free licenses or other access to specialized software that will help to build student skills on key industry tools);
• providing paid co-op or internship opportunities for Canadians and permanent residents at the firm;
• developing and implementing policies to support the hiring of underrepresented groups, (for example, hosting and/or attending events that support the professional development and/or hiring of underrepresented groups in the labour market and women in high-skilled technical and/or leadership roles at the firm);
• providing direct training to Canadians or permanent residents, including supporting employees to travel to and attend industry or industry sector conferences relevant to the development of their specialized skillset;
• ensuring that the highly skilled foreign workers directly supervise and mentor Canadian workers at the firm to support knowledge transfer;
• increasing growth of revenue, employment or investment at the firm;
• developing or improving best company practices or policies related to attraction/retention of Canadian workforce (for example, by supporting code sprints and hackathons to hire new employees); and
• developing or enhancing partnerships with organizations that assist with the identification of top domestic capital.

How to build the plan

Three steps.

Step one: identify your mandatory benefit. It follows from your category, so there is no decision here.

Step two: choose two complementary benefits. The practical advice we give every employer: pick things you already do or were already going to do. Hiring more people, running training, setting up a mentorship arrangement. A plan built on activities that were happening anyway is a plan you will meet.

Step three: attach an activity and a target to each. The activity is what you will do. The target is the number you will be measured against.

Worked examples

A note on targets. Make them specific enough to be credible and modest enough to be met. An ambitious target you miss is worse than a conservative one you exceed, because you are reporting against it.

Write the benefits, activities and targets into the Labour Market Benefits Plan sections of the application, including start and end dates.

What you are committing to

A Labour Market Benefits Plan is a set of undertakings, not a declaration of intent. You can be asked to demonstrate progress against your stated activities and targets, and employer compliance inspections are routine.

That is the reason the advice above is to choose things you were doing anyway. A plan assembled to look impressive at application time becomes a liability at inspection time, and the gap between the two is years, by which point whoever wrote the plan may have left.

Keep the records as you go. Reconstructing evidence of training you ran three years ago is substantially harder than filing it at the time. See employer compliance.

What happens after you submit

After you submit, Employment and Social Development Canada's Global Talent Stream officers support you through the application, including finalising the plan. ESDC's service standard for the LMIA decision is 10 business days for 80% of applications.

ESDC then reviews your progress every year, usually a request for documentation, to assess how well you are meeting the commitments in your plan. If you do not make reasonable efforts to meet them, or do not complete the review in the requested time, future Global Talent Stream applications are likely to be refused for two years. For this reason, we recommend a plan that is reasonable for your business to complete.

Will you have to update the plan?

You may have to update your plan if you have applied through the Global Talent Stream before and are hiring additional foreign workers. Whether ESDC asks for revised commitments varies case by case.

How long the Global Talent Stream takes

ESDC's service standard for the Global Talent Stream is 10 business days for 80% of applications, as of October 28, 2026. See ESDC's Global Talent Stream page. The worker's permit application follows, and our IRCC processing times guide tracks that figure.

What this means for you

If you are preparing a first Global Talent Stream application, the Labour Market Benefits Plan is where files get held up, and where commitments get made that you will be held to for years afterwards.

We draft plans that are realistic and defensible, because you are the one who has to live with them. We also handle the application and the worker's permit alongside it, so nothing falls between the employer's side and the worker's side.

A flat fee quoted before we start, so you can budget the hire.