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Rene Vincent moved to Calgary from Mexico in May 2023. He needed English to show people he could do more than the jobs his current level allowed. He told the Calgary Herald he had made progress in his LINC classes while job hunting, but still needed more English to reach the work he wanted.

The classes Vincent was relying on are the ones now being cut.

In April 2026, The Immigrant Education Society (TIES), the largest provider of Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) classes in Calgary, laid off more than 40 staff. Most were language instructors. Twenty-six LINC classes had already been cancelled by April 1. Roughly 2,700 people are on the waitlist, and some have been waiting more than a year for a seat. TIES executive director, Sally Zhao says the organization would need a couple of years just to serve the people already waiting.

By September 2026, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will end federal funding for all Stage 2 LINC classes — the classes that take learners from Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) 5 to CLB 8.

CLB 4 is the level at which a learner can book a doctor's appointment by phone. CLB 7 is the level the federal government requires for skilled-worker immigration streams and for many professional jobs. The classes being cut sit exactly in the gap a newcomer has to cross to move from survival work to career work.

Jana Ciobanu, TIES' Senior Manager of Language Programs and Childminding, says students at CLB 4 are only beginning to form more complex sentences and write short paragraphs. "They can just get by," she said. "That is not going to be enough for them to get a job in an engineering company or in health care."

Most Canadian employers do not ask for CLB scores and job postings rarely say "CLB 6 required." But hiring tests the same skills the benchmarks measure, and the candidate’s limitations can show up at predictable moments; on the screening call, the behavioural question, or the workplace email.

At CLB 4, a learner can handle fundamental social interactions, express simple opinions and write short emails. ISSofBC's CLB guide puts the practical benchmark at something like booking a doctor's appointment by phone.

In a job search, CLB 4 can limit communication at specific points:

A learner at CLB 5 can understand a short phone message from a co-worker, follow instructions on how to access a company database, write a short email and fill out an application form. CLB 5 also meets the minimum language requirement for some immigration streams; IRCC's Express Entry rules require CLB 5 for the Canadian Experience Class in TEER 2 or 3 occupations.

The CCLB's own materials note that learners at this level still pause, hesitate, and make grammar mistakes that affect understanding. In practice, that shows up here:

Zhao says that even for learners at CLB 5 and above, "the language level is still too low to take on some jobs."

A learner at CLB 6 can make suggestions to improve safety at work, participate in small group discussions, write more formal emails and handle routine small talk with co-workers.

The LINC curriculum guidelines for CLB 6 list workplace tasks such as using small talk, giving sequential instructions, asking and giving information in small group meetings, and writing short business correspondence. The workplace-culture guidelines note that learners at this level still need support with fast conversations, idiomatic language, tone, hierarchy, and indirect communication.

In an interview or on the job, the limits can look like this:

Immigration pathways set their own floors above this. The Federal Skilled Worker Program requires CLB 7 in the first official language. The Canadian Experience Class requires CLB 7 for TEER 0 or 1 jobs. Zhao says some newcomers will be able to find "survival" jobs but won't be able to give back at the level higher language skills would allow.

Not everyone in the sector thinks more LINC seats are the answer. Leah Mitchell, a Canadian regional advisor at EnGen, an English-learning company that offers over 170 courses built around specific roles (Health Care Aide, commercial driver, early childhood educator) and teaches the English of the job rather than English in general, says the funded English programming is the wrong tool past CLB 4. “LINC is great for people getting that entry-level English to help them land a first job,” she says. “But once people start working, LINC can become unrealistic.”

Most LINC programs require at least six hours a week in class. That means working full time, balancing family, and then sitting in a classroom for six-plus hours a week after an 8 to 12 hour work day. Canada is expensive, Mitchell pointed out, and people need to work. She also questioned how much anyone is actually learning in a three-hour class when they're exhausted. The waitlists exist because there are no other options, she says.

Her alternative draws on what some U.S. states are doing. In August 2025, North Dakota's Department of Commerce secured 1,000 EnGen licenses and made them available to any workplace in the state to use with employees. The licenses include industry-specific English, online instructor-led classes and coaching. Workers are able to work full time, getting the support from their workplace (which increases promotion & retention) and learn English at no cost in the time/place that works best for them. 

That, Mitchell said, is what Canada should be doing for CLB 5 and above. She would like to see provinces and territories try the same approach.

Bow Valley College announced in February 2025 that its LINC programming would not continue past April. Roughly 1,300 students were enrolled at the time, with another thousand on its waitlist. Maple Leaf Academy and Lethbridge Polytechnic have also wound down their LINC offerings. Across Calgary, Immigrant Services Calgary reported 6,199 newcomers waiting for LINC classes as of April 2025.

The websites of other providers such as Columbia College, Canadian Immigrant Women Association (CIWA), YW Calgary, Centre for Newcomers, and Equilibrium School still lists classes, but many cap at CLB 4. YW Calgary, for instance, only offers CLB 1 through 4.

Then there are the new time limits on settlement-service eligibility cap access for economic immigrants at six years after permanent residence starting April 2026, dropping to five years in April 2027. A Calgary newcomer who landed in 2019 or 2020 as an economic immigrant has already aged out, or is about to. So even if a LINC seat opens up at TIES or Columbia, they may no longer qualify to take it.

The dwindling number of training spots seems to be the obvious problem. But Mitchell’s argument, no matter how unpopular it might sound, needs revisiting. The harder question we need to answer is did the country spend two decades funding classroom hours for people who needed something a classroom couldn't give them.

Rene Vincent told the Calgary Herald he had made progress in his LINC classes, but still needed more English to reach the work he wanted. The classes he was relying on are the ones being cut. But the classes that might have worked for someone in his position (built around the English of a specific job, on a schedule that suits his work shifts) were never on offer.