The federal government recently announced important changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker program, a program that allows Canadian employers to hire foreign nationals to fill labour shortages at low wages.
As of Sept. 26, 2024, the federal government will stop processing employer requests for temporary foreign workers in cities with an unemployment rate of six per cent or higher, with limited exceptions.
The government will also limit employers’ hiring of temporary foreign workers to no more than 10 per cent of their total workforce, a limit that was in place before the COVID-19 pandemic. The maximum duration of employment for workers hired through the low-wage stream will be reduced to one year from two years.
Unfortunately, these changes still fall far short of the reforms needed to address the program’s deeper issues. A United Nations special rapporteur has described the program as a “breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery,” highlighting the urgent need for far more comprehensive reforms.
Rise in temporary foreign workers
The Temporary Foreign Worker program was established to provide a temporary solution to labour shortages, allowing employers to hire foreign workers on a temporary basis when Canadian workers can’t be found.
The program was originally intended as a short-term solution, meant to supplement the domestic workforce rather than replace it. In recent years, however, an increasing number of employers have been hiring temporary foreign workers to fill vacant jobs in their organizations, even as unemployment rises in Canada.
This significant increase suggests that employers are increasingly depending on foreign labour to fill positions that, in the past, might have been filled by Canadian workers.
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The rise in temporary foreign workers is particularly pronounced in certain sectors, and there has been a significant rise in the number of positions that have been approved for temporary foreign workers.
Between 2018 and 2023, the number of temporary foreign workers more than doubled according to data from Employment and Social Development Canada, increasing from 108,988 in 2018 to just under 240,000 in 2023.
For instance, the number of approvals for food counter attendants, kitchen helpers and related occupations rose by 4,802 per cent between 2018 and 2023. Similarly, approvals for administrative assistants rose by 1,063 per cent, while light duty cleaners saw a 1,414 per cent increase.
These changes are expected to affect the retail, accommodation and food service sectors the most.
An exploitive system
Nothing is being done to change the exploitive system that gives employers steady access to low-wage, vulnerable migrant workers with precarious work and immigration status.
Temporary foreign workers in this program are tied to their employers through closed work permits that only allow them to work for the employer who applied to bring them to Canada for the length of time specified. Typically, they must leave Canada when their temporary job ends. Quitting or finding another job is not an option, forcing workers to stay in jobs that are often exploitative.
The Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology released a report in May recommending that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada stop issuing these closed work permits.
These employment terms create conditions for wage theft, excessive work hours, limited breaks and physical abuse. These issues were highlighted in a final report from the UN’s special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, Tomoya Obokata.
The special rapporteur also called attention to little information provided to these workers on their rights and the lack of enforcement measures to deal with exploitative employers or labour brokers who charge workers exorbitant fees to arrange their paperwork and job in Canada, often leaving workers in debt.
It’s clear temporary foreign workers are not a short-term solution for perceived labour shortages, but are instead an entrenched element of Canada’s changing workforce. These workers remain in precarious temporary work even after years of living and working in Canada without ever getting any closer to achieving permanent residency, not to mention Canadian citizenship.
Good enough to work, good enough to stay
There should be permanent residency and a path to citizenship for all workers entering Canada. As the United Food and Commercial Workers Union has put it, if a person is “good enough to work” in Canada, then they are certainly “good enough to stay.”
However, few temporary foreign workers, especially in the Low Wage stream, become permanent Canadian citizens. Union membership and permanent residency remain the only real solutions to the exploitive working conditions and employment system for temporary foreign workers.
The Canadian Labour Congress has been a vocal advocate for reform, calling on the government to take concrete steps to improve protections for workers in the low-wage Temporary Foreign Worker program. These steps include:
- Replacing the employer-specific work permits with open work permits;
- Providing permanent residency opportunities for low-wage workers; and
- Provide permanent residency opportunities for former low-wage workers who are undocumented.
By creating pathways to permanent residency and citizenship, Canada can ensure these workers, who contribute so much to the economy, are treated with more dignity and respect.
Rather than tinkering around the edges, the federal government needs to fundamentally overhaul the Temporary Foreign Worker program to end the exploitation of these workers.
Jane Stinson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
