Canada to limit number of temporary foreign workers

The Canadian government announced it will refuse applications for low-wage temporary foreign workers in regions with an unemployment rate of 6 percent or higher.

The policy, announced on Aug 26, will go into effect on Sept 26.

A UN report issued July 22 called the program a "breeding ground for contemporary slavery" and said workers experienced a wide range of abuses because they had insufficient access to legal remedies.

Employers will be permitted to hire a maximum of 10 percent of their workforces from the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), down from 20 percent.

The TFWP was designed to help employers fill temporary labor shortages when qualified Canadian citizens or permanent residents aren't available.

In 2023, the highest number of work permit holders were from Mexico (45,500), followed by India, with 26,495, according to Canadian government data. There were 2,930 workers from China.

Speaking to reporters at the Liberal Party cabinet retreat in Halifax last Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government had relaxed the program's rules to help businesses facing labor shortages recover from the pandemic.

But the economic situation is different now, he said, and Canada "no longer needs as many temporary foreign workers''.

According to public data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, there were 135,818 temporary foreign worker permits issued in 2022, up from 84,004 in 2018.

Mario Seccareccia, a professor in the economics department at the University of Ottawa, told China Daily: "I would rather describe this as a somewhat hybrid form of indentured labor, where workers are brought over and are taken advantage of by unscrupulous employers by abusing them and not respecting their contractual obligations and not fully paying them."

He said that existing regulatory mechanisms didn't protect the workers' rights. The key issue is the power imbalance created by the system, in which foreign workers are tied to a single employer, he said.
That creates a dependency that can lead to potential abuse, as workers fear losing their jobs and being forced to return to their home countries if the employer no longer wants them, Seccareccia said.

"A simple solution is to allow the foreign workers during the period of their work permit in Canada to find another job, for example, in agriculture or the services industry. Removing that bondage to one employer would clearly reduce this abuse," he said.

He said the program can easily lead to abuse because it doesn't allow foreign workers to leave abusive employers and to stay in Canada during the full term of their permits.

But the federal and provincial governments should have more closely monitored the situation, he said.

The UN report called for an end to closed work permit systems and for all workers to be given the right to change employers. The report also emphasized the need for governments to work proactively to inform workers of their rights, rather than deferring to the demands of employers.

Mathis Denis, a spokesman for Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault, told China Daily: "The health and safety of temporary foreign workers in Canada is paramount. It is the responsibility of the federal government to ensure that employers are complying with the program and to hold those who are not to account.''

Denis noted that in the last fiscal year, the government completed 2,122 inspections under the TFWP. During that period, $2.1 million in fines were issued to noncompliant employers for violating program rules, an increase of approximately 36 percent from the prior fiscal year. Twelve employers were banned from the program, compared with the previous fiscal year, when seven were banned.

The employment minister's office said that last year, the government conducted a survey of more than 1,600 workers in the TFW program; 76 percent of respondents said they knew about their rights and responsibilities; and 80 percent reported increased knowledge of their rights and the resources and services available to them.

gaoyang@chinadailyusa.com