Former Alberta premier and Conservative immigration minister Jason Kenney is attacking the federal government’s handling of immigration, with particular ire for its foreign labour policies.
While serving as the immigration and employment minister in 2012-13 under then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Kenney overhauled the Temporary Foreign Worker Program resulting in an 80% decline in low-skilled foreign workers.
Those numbers have exploded under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Statistics Canada is now reporting a 30-month high in unemployment which is particularly impacting youth who are competing with an influx of foreign labour.
Kenney says he is “perplexed” by the federal government’s “gross mismanagement” of the immigration system, and especially the foreign worker program.
“And then the current government reversed these reforms, on top of massive increases in other streams of both permanent and temporary resident migration, in the midst of a housing crisis,” he wrote on X. “Why???”
Trudeau announced that his government would be reducing the number of foreign, low-wage workers after Canada’s unemployment hit a 30-month high of 6.4% in July.
“The labour market has changed,” Trudeau said. “Now is the time for our businesses to invest in Canadian workers and youth.”
Temporary foreign workers do labour ranging from picking fruit, to pouring coffee, to cleaning hotel rooms. Healthcare, construction, and food security sectors won’t be impacted by the cuts.
The prime minister’s announcement follows Statistics Canada’s July data which revealed that unemployment is highest among young Canadians, and increasingly among core-aged men.
“There’s record-high unemployment for youths, there’s record-high unemployment for, basically, very young workers,” said Chetan Dave, professor of economics at the University of Alberta.
“So having this surge or temporary foreign workers cut against Canadian workers who were looking for positions as well.”
During the pandemic, the federal government bolstered the program resulting in more than 183,000 permits effective last year – an 88% jump from 2019.
Kenney said changes he made over 10 years ago were criticised by the business community but were “ the right thing to do.”
“As I said repeatedly at the time, if there are real labour shortages, then the market response must be for employers to offer higher wages, better benefits, more training, accommodations for underemployed cohorts of the labour force, and more investment to enhance productivity,” he said.