In 2014 Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced that, subject to certain exceptions, specialized knowledge Intra-Company Transferees were required to be paid at the prevailing wage for their occupation. (This provision does not apply to ICTs based on managerial level capacity.)
Prevailing wage is determined based on the National Occupational Classification (NOC) code associated with an occupation, and based further on the geographical area where the person will be working (the wage for a specific scenario can be determined at https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/explorecareers?select=ec-wages).
It should be noted that though Canada allows for ICTs, there are actually multiple legal sources for this work permit category. ICTs can be based on treaty provisions, or the general regulations under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Though the sources in large part provide similar requirements, they are indeed distinct sources, and there can be some technical differences (and newer treaties have new concepts like ‘graduate trainees’, not previously available).
The primary exception to the prevailing wage requirement is that where an ICT is based on the terms of a treaty that Canada has entered into with an other country or countries, the terms of that treaty will be paramount in the event of a conflict with general regulatory requirements. As such, for instance, ICT applicants under NAFTA are exempt from this prevailing wage requirement, since NAFTA does not call for this requirement. (One important item to note is that this treaty exception does not apply to GATS, the General Agreement on Trade in Services, essentially because it is not technically a treaty, but more of a protocol to which countries may or may not be party.)
IRCC has now clarified that the treaty exception noted above applies to ICTs under the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). That is, European Union-based ICTs to Canada relying on CETA provisions are indeed exempt from the prevailing wage requirement. Until now, this was not fully clear due to some of the verbiage in the treaty, but this ambiguity now appears to have been resolved, and resolved in favour of not enforcing the need for prevailing wage.
Though this is an important clarification for people seeking to utilize CETA ICT provisions, it should still be recalled that in all cases, an officer still has the right to determine the credibility of a case, and a salary that is unduly low may still cause issues in an ICT scenario. It may seem unusual, for instance, for a senior computer analyst in a company to be earning minimum wage. Yet again, the prevailing wage exemption for CETA ICTs is an important technical piece of information, but the bona fides of an application must still be considered in its totality.
The information in this article is for general purposes only, and not intended as legal advice for any particular situation.