Lululemon promises 2,600 new jobs after exemption from some immigration rules

Lululemon CEO Calvin McDonald, left, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, Francois-Philippe Champagne, centre, and Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Sean Fraser arrive for a news conference at the company's headquarters, in Vancouver, on Thursday, May 25, 2023. The company has received a waiver from immigration rules restricting access to foreign workers as it expands its global headquarters, with plans to hire 2,600 additional workers over the next five years. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Vancouver-based company Lululemon says it will expand its headquarters in the city and create 2,600 jobs over the next five years.

The announcement comes months after the federal government granted the company the ability to hire foreign workers for certain highly skilled positions, including management jobs, software engineers and computer technicians, without needing to apply for a labour market impact assessment.

Federal Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne says if Ottawa hadn't acted, the company's headquarters may have left Vancouver.

CEO Calvin McDonald says Lululemon has secured an additional 125,000 square feet of office space in downtown Vancouver because of the confidence it has in the agreement.

A labour market impact assessment is a process sometimes used to determine if a company needs a foreign worker to fill a position because of a lack of Canadian workers or permanent residents available to do the job.

Immigration Minister Sean Fraser says Canada won't be able to meet the domestic needs of the economy with an exclusively domestic labour force and the entire world is competing for talent.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 25, 2023.


THOMPSON: Women bravely served their countries in the Second World War
  OPINION More than 1,300 movies tell stories of the Second World War. Some are factual accounts, most blend fact and fiction or are “based on a true story”. Some plots, frankly, never happened. Not ma
Vernon resident Logan Saunders with his late wife Maria Jee-an Paladar Olivares at a restaurant in Phuket, Thailand.
Vernon man reviewing every eatery in the city in memory of late wife
A Vernon man is on a mission to review every single restaurant, cafe and eatery in the city by the end of the year, a total of 154. Online ESL teacher Logan Saunders has eaten at 88 restaurants so far, leaving photos, ratings and reviews on
FILE PHOTO
For teens who drink and do drugs, here's how to reduce the harm
About 40 per cent of Canadian teenagers drank alcohol in the last year and one in five used cannabis, according to an annual Statistics Canada survey that asks kids about substances. The 2021-
Future uncertain for Kamloops mother after mobile home fire
A Kamloops woman is living in a motel trying to put the pieces of her life back together after her mobile home burned down less than a week ago, but so far she says it seems impossible. Jackie was tarring the roof of the home with her boyfr

Top News