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A temporary foreign worker from Guatemala weeds an eggplant field at Ferme Chez Mario in Sainte-Madeleine, Que., in 2024. Federal reforms will allow eligible employers to staff up to 15 per cent of their business with TFWs.Graham Hughes/The Globe and Mail
Ottawa is loosening rules for the Temporary Foreign Worker program, allowing select employers to hire more of those workers, and doubling the length of time they can work for the same employer.
The federal government announced major reforms of the program on Friday after hinting at them in Thursday’s budget. Business groups, such as the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, have lobbied the Liberal government in the past year to allow employers to staff more of their businesses with foreign workers, arguing that tightening of immigration rules in 2024 left them struggling to find workers.
Specifically, eligible employers will be allowed to staff up to 15 per cent of their business with foreign workers, an increase from the current 10-per-cent cap established in 2024.
But the process to hire more temporary foreign workers, or TFWs, is not straightforward. Provinces and territories will have to request permission from Ottawa on behalf of “eligible employers” in communities identified as having a local labour shortage, in order to allow those businesses to hire more TFWs. The federal government introduced a similar mechanism earlier this year to boost hiring of foreign workers in rural communities. Provinces and territories were given the discretion to opt into the rural TFW program; Ontario and Alberta chose not to do so.
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The government is also making changes to Labour Market Impact Assessments, allowing them to remain valid for two years instead of one. This effectively enables employers to keep TFWs employed for two years, or twice as long as before. (An LMIA is a government-issued document that employers need to justify hiring foreign workers.)
“These suggested changes, in collaboration with provinces and territories will help ensure the Temporary Foreign Worker Program remains a targeted and responsive tool that supports work force needs and helps communities and businesses continue to thrive,” Jobs and Families Minister Patty Hajdu said in a press release announcing the rule revisions. The government earmarked $151.5-million for Employment and Social Development Canada in Thursday’s budget to execute the program reforms.
The TFW program is a critical immigration stream in Canada that allows employers to hire mostly low-wage foreign workers on a temporary basis in sectors where the government determines there is a shortage of domestic labour. Currently, businesses may staff no more than 10 per cent of their work force with TFWs through the program’s low-wage stream. But in certain sectors that face chronic labour shortages, such as health care, construction and food processing, businesses are allowed to staff 20 per cent of their work force with foreign workers.
As of Friday, the government said, early childhood educators will be added to the list of high-priority sectors where a labour shortage is critical enough to justify the hiring of additional foreign workers.
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The TFW program has been the subject of much criticism from migrant-rights groups, labour advocates and the Conservative Party. They argue that the program’s design, which ties a worker to an employer, exacerbates the likelihood of employee mistreatment. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has called for the program to be abolished altogether, linking the number of TFWs in the country to high youth unemployment rates. Some economists, however, have disputed that link.
“What we are seeing today is the government basically increasing the access employers have to temporary foreign workers,” said Syed Hussan, executive director of the advocacy group Migrant Workers Alliance for Change. “But they are not providing them any stability or assurance that they will be able to obtain permanent residency.”
Mr. Hussan also said he was puzzled by the expanded foreign worker cap for early childhood educators, given that “thousands” of former international students with expiring work permits have trained as ECEs. “Canada has a trained child-care work force, and the easiest solution for the government would be to retain them,” he said.