Service Canada has recently approved an advertising variation for two digital media position titles: Digital Entertainment Software Engineer (DESE) – NOC 2173 and Digital Artist (DA) – NOC 5241.  With this modification, these positions no longer require proof of advertising and recruitment in the Labour Market Opinion to support Work Permits for foreign workers.  Service Canada has also agreed to expedited approval processing, where required, for people coming to work in Canada under these job descriptions. This is a permanent replacement for the previous temporary information technology exemption and is intended to meet companies’ labour market requirements and to support the continued growth of the British Columbia digital media industry.

The film, television and digital media industry worked very effectively with the federal and provincial governments in achieving this result and we believe this decision strikes a fair balance between meeting the needs of industry and making sure that Canadians have full access to employment opportunities.  We wish to thank the federal and provincial officials involved in this process for their help.

For further information, please see the Service Canada website.