In Canada, at the national sport level, there is a current drive to hire the best coaches, technicians and technical leadership in the world. Although this may seem like an obvious way to enhance our national high-performance capacity, there are several complications that emerge with a foreign candidate.

The hiring process for a foreign candidate is increasingly complex, involves increased costs and potential risks to the organization. This includes actual costs such as professional and government fees, relocation costs, etc. as well as the cost of assigning internal resources to the process. Other complicating factors, such as cultural conflicts and settlement challenges, may also arise. Risk and uncertainty in the process cannot be entirely avoided.

This guide is meant to serve as basic guidance in order to provide a system wide, standardized approach around the recruitment and hiring of foreign technical leadership. There will of course always be specific and unusual circumstances, but the general approach and decision making process should be very similar.

The intent of this guide is to provide direction and identify the challenges that an organization will face when hiring a foreign worker. These include tax implications, immigration requirements and managing risk through appropriate and carefully prepared employment or consulting agreements.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: This Guide was reviewed by Fasken for the COC.  The information does not constitute legal or professional advice and, as such, should be relied upon at the user’s own risk.  If you have questions about the implementation of this Guide, please do not hesitate to reach out to Fasken for more information.

DISCLAIMER: Please note that this Guide is provided on an “as is” basis only. The information does not constitute legal or professional advice and, as such, should be relied upon at the user’s own risk. Consequently, the information provided in this document is given without liability on the part of the COC. This document and any content within is, unless otherwise specifically set forth in this Guide, the sole property of the COC. It may not be published, distributed or otherwise shared with any third party without the COC’s prior written approval.

For any additional questions, please reach out to NSOservices@olympic.ca