After admitting more than one million temporary foreign workers in Canada, the Trudeau government is cracking down on the program, pledging to bring fewer foreign workers in while strengthening restrictions.
Amidst the Liberal cabinet retreat, Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault announced new restrictions on hiring temporary foreign workers in markets with high unemployment rates, on the share of foreign workers allowed by an employer, and on how long foreign workers are allowed to work in Canada.
This comes after the government pursued a policy of fast-tracking temporary foreign worker application approvals during the Covid-19 pandemic to fill gaps in the labour market.
In a press conference on Monday morning, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau touted his government’s decision to liberalize the temporary foreign worker program and their retroactive decision to restrict access to the program.
“In the aftermath of the pandemic and facing severe labour shortages, we adjusted the program for temporary foreign workers. That’s what the business community needed, that’s what the business community was asking for and at that moment in time, those changes helped,” said Trudeau.
“But today’s economy is very different from what it was two years ago. Inflation has started to come down, employment is higher, we no longer need as many temporary foreign workers.”
Trudeau said that he ordered his employment minister to conduct a 90-day review to investigate changes in the high-wage temporary foreign worker stream.
Starting on Sept 26, the federal government will refuse to process labour market impact assessments for low-wage jobs in census metropolitan areas with an unemployment rate of 6%.
The government will also restrict businesses from having 10% or more of their workforce composed of temporary foreign workers in the low-wage stream.
This is a reversal of a 2022 policy change that allowed employers to hire 20-30% of their workforce through the temporary foreign worker program depending on the industry.
However, these restrictions will not apply to the primary agriculture sector, food processors, fish processors, the construction industry, and the healthcare industry.
This is even though the plurality of temporary foreign workers work in the agricultural industry on animal and crop farms.
In a United Nations report criticizing the temporary foreign worker program as a form of “contemporary slavery,” the report hones in on the exploitation of temporary foreign workers in the agricultural industry who often have to live and work in poor conditions.
The Trudeau government is also reducing the maximum length of employment for a temporary foreign worker from two years to one year.
Last week, the Trudeau government granted the Quebec government’s request to suspend the approval of temporary foreign worker applications for low-wage jobs in the Montreal economic region, with some exceptions.