Lululemon warns it might move HQ out of Vancouver

Lululemoniswarningthat it may be forced to move its headquarters out of Canadabecause the federal government's temporary foreign workerprogram is limiting its ability to stretch its wings.

TheVancouver-based apparel company best known for its yoga pants currentlyhas 1,200 employees working in its head office in Vancouver and says it needs to hire specialized workers to further expand.

"In order to continue growing in a very competitive marketplace, we depend on highly skilled and specialized talent. Currently, there is a shortage of the kind of specialized talent our industry needs here in Canada," wrote the company in a report submitted to the House of Commons Finance Committee.

The clothing giant says the current rules are slowing down its hiring process because the company has toprove that there are no Canadians that met the job requirement before hiring from cities like London or New York.

The retailer says it wants the same exemptionthat the film industry and universities get. The exemptionwould allow the retailer to avoid filing a labour market impact assessment application (LMIA) before hiring.

For the 2016-2017 fiscal year,Lululemonapplied for 28 labour-market impact assessment applications forhigh-wagepositions. Those were processed, on average,within 15 calendar days after the four-week advertising period.

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But Irene Lanzinger, president of the B.C. Federation of Labour, says the solution isn't an exemption.

"I say the solution should be training British Columbians and Canadians," Lanzinger said.

"There are many many people in British Columbia who want to do [those jobs] andwe have training institutes, BCIT, VCC and many colleges and universities that have training in fashion design," she said.

The company did suggest the federal government invest in education and training opportunitiesto better address the labour shortage.

Very concerning, says mayor

Vancouver's mayor is calling this a warning sign and worries other big local companies are feeling the same pressure.

"[I'm] very concerned that companies, because of immigration policies, would be considering leaving," said MayorGregorRobertson.

"We have worked really hard to bring headquarters and lots of new companies to Vancouver."

Robertson said other creative industries like the film, animation, and visual effects are also feeling the pinch.

"We have had huge growth in these industries and they need to attract some of the big league talent from around the world. We are pulling companies and talentfrom London, L.A., and New York and we need to keep that momentum going,"said MayorGregorRobertson.

"We have a real strength there and we want to keep growing that instead of losing companies," said Roberston.

Lululemon was among dozens of other companies that presented the Government of Canada with recommendations on the temporary foreign workers programlast month.

The reportwill be responded to with a plan within 120 days.

CBC News requested an interview with Lululemon but was told no one was available to comment. The company did, however, issuethis statement:

"As a company firmly rooted in Vancouver for eighteen years, we areproud of our Canadian heritage and deeplycommitted to remaining here for the long term."

With files from B.C. Almanac, Jon Hernandez and Tamara Rahmani.