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

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 Franois-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.

"As a proudly Canadian brand, we are fortunate to be in partnership with the provincial and federal governments, who were able to move this forward for us," McDonald said in a government releaseThursday.

Lululemon employed nearly9,000 people in Canada in 2022, the release said.

Lack of Canadian workers

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.