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SAINT-BRUNO-DE-MONTARVILLE · L-1A FIELD GUIDE

Should the employer reuse the Canadian job description?

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THE DIRECT ANSWER

Only use a description that accurately reflects the actual proposal. If the duties differ, explain the differences rather than copying a familiar title and task list.

Identify what changed

Show which duties are retained, removed or added and who supports the new operation. Preserve effective dates and genuine records. The document should describe the job, not create a more favourable version of it.

A duty-by-duty crosswalk table works better than a rewritten narrative: list each responsibility from the earlier role, mark whether it carries over unchanged, expands, narrows or drops away, and explain the reason next to each entry. A smaller new operation often means a position covers a broader range of tasks than the earlier version described, simply because fewer staff exist to divide the work, and the expansion should be explained rather than left to look like an unexplained promotion. Where new supervisory duties are added, name who reports to the position and confirm their employment status, since a duty to supervise staff who do not yet exist is not evidence of present managerial capacity.

Keeping the earlier description on file for comparison, rather than discarding it once a new version is drafted, lets an officer see the starting point as well as the destination. Titles borrowed from the earlier structure without matching content invite the same scepticism as a chart drawn to look better than the underlying operation.