The Liberal government has issued a staggering 4.5 million work permits to foreign nationals since 2020 under programs that do not require a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA), according to new federal data released to Parliament.

The figure, found in a written response by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to an inquiry of ministry, shows the explosive growth of the International Mobility Program, which allows employers to hire foreign workers without first proving no Canadian is available for the job.

IRCC says roughly 95,000 employers have used LMIA-exempt streams since January 1, 2020. But when Conservative MP Laila Goodridge asked which employers were using these exemptions, how many workers they brought in, and under which codes, the department refused.

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Yet, the Liberal government says it can’t disclose who is using the system.

IRCC claims the information isn’t stored in a centralized database and that providing a detailed breakdown would require manually combing through over 200,000 records — an exercise they say is “not possible within the time allotted.”

The department also invoked a long list of Access to Information Act exemptions to withhold employer names and exemption categories, citing concerns over:

• personal information
• third-party commercial secrets
• corporate hiring strategies
• potential harm to Canada’s “economic interests”

In several exemption categories, IRCC warned that identifying the employer would essentially identify the worker — especially in cases involving:

• entrepreneurs (C11)
• intra-company transferees (C12)
• medical residents (C45)
• religious workers (C50)
• and specialized tech roles (C63)

While Canadians face rising concerns about housing shortages, wage suppression, and runaway population growth, Ottawa has been issuing millions of work-permits to foreign nationals through a system the government can’t — or won’t — fully explain.