I am a male foreign worker working in the tech industry in Canada with a work permit through a Free Trade Agreement. Well, I was. I just got laid off last week because the company can't afford to keep their employees.

I came with a work permit a few years ago and they did all the paperwork for that (paid the employer fee, my work permit, everything). No issues there.

When my work permit expired, they applied to renew it again and I got a new work permit.

Now that I have been laid off they sent me an invoice with the lawyer's fees for the second work permit that they did in order to hire me. The invoice is almost $6,000 CAD.

They still have not paid my last check and I am afraid they will deduct the $6,000 CAD out of that.

What are my options?

I don't have access to the work email anymore and cannot prove that they had agreed to pay for those fees.

Edit: The invoice is from the lawyers charging them

Edit 2: I am in Toronto