Advocates for both workers and employers are unhappy with the Liberal government’s changes to Canada’s temporary foreign worker program.
The government initially eased restrictions on the program for low-wage workers in 2022 in response to a post-pandemic labour shortage. But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday that the government will now Reduce the number of temporary foreign workers in Canada After a historic surge in recent years.
“Canadian businesses need to invest in training and skills, rather than increasing their reliance on low-cost foreign labor,” Trudeau said at a news conference in Halifax.
“This is unfair to Canadians who are struggling to find good jobs, and it’s also unfair to temporary foreign workers, some of whom are being mistreated and exploited.”
But labour advocates say the government is scapegoating temporary foreign workers, blaming them for rising unemployment.
“High unemployment, low wages and high house prices are not caused by immigrants or migrants, but by employer exploitation and failed policies,” said Said Hussan, executive director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Transformation.
“Immigrants build communities and deserve equal rights and respect, not be scapegoated,” he said.
Raul Gatica of the migrant worker advocacy group Dignidad Migrante Associazione, said the solution was to ensure employers offered workers better wages and better working conditions.
“Temporary foreign workers were able to do the jobs nobody wanted to do… and now we’re disposable. They used us and now they’re throwing us away,” he said.
According to a report released in May by Statistics Canada, one in 10 temporary foreign workers earned less than $7,500 a year in 2019.
A recent United Nations report called the temporary foreign worker system a “hotbed of modern slavery” because of so-called “closed work permits” that allow workers to work only for the employer who applied to bring them to Canada.
Gatica criticised the government for making changes to the work permit system.
“Trudeau is scapegoating foreign workers instead of taking responsibility for providing a livelihood for the poor. [with] Open Work Permit [that] It will save us from exploitation,” Gatica said.
Both Gatica and Hussan blamed the government. Backslide on promise to provide residency status to all illegal workersThis, they argued, would give workers better protection.
Dan Kelly, president and CEO of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said some of the program adjustments make sense but warned some sectors, including the provincial tourism industry, will be adversely affected.
“In some areas there are very few people available for hospitality work. [isn’t] “There are a lot of Canadians who are willing to relocate to higher-cost centres to take these jobs, but they are very important employers who add a lot of value to Canada,” he said.
But while Kelly said he felt a recent UN report on Canada’s temporary foreign worker program was overstated, he agreed the government should provide a clearer path for workers to gain permanent residency.
“I think we can all agree that we don’t want to have people who have been in Canada for decades without the same full labour market mobility rights as other Canadians,” he said.
Government advocates reforms to ease housing burden
Trudeau and his cabinet ministers have suggested part of the motivation for the program changes is to address Canada’s ongoing housing crisis.
But Phil Triadafilopoulos, a professor at the University of Toronto who studies immigration issues, said he was skeptical about how much a cut in temporary foreign workers would affect housing demand.
“This is more of a political statement than a major policy statement,” he said.
“I think reducing the number of low-skilled, low-wage people being admitted into temporary foreign worker programs is a very small step to a big problem.”
Immigration has become a major focus of the broader political debate, particularly in relation to affordability issues such as housing. A Leisure poll conducted in July found that 60 per cent of respondents said there are too many immigrants coming to Canada.
Triadafilopoulos said Trudeau’s announcement was likely a response to those polls.
“The reason this issue is starting to have an impact on public opinion is because it coincides with the serious housing crisis and the two issues are interconnected, for better or worse,” he said.
Triadafilopoulos said the government needs to look at other programs if it wants to lower housing demand through the immigration system.
Trudeau suggested Monday that the government was considering changes to its plans for overall immigration levels, but Kelly warned against going too far in the other direction.
“If you look at the long-term outlook for Canada, if we don’t continue to have a steady influx of immigrants to make up for our ageing population, we’re going to be in big trouble,” he said.
“We must be careful not to lose sight of the significant benefits that a stronger Canadian immigration system would provide.”
