Earlier last month, the federal government announced it was making changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, saying that the program was being “misused.”
In a release, Randy Boissonnault, minister of employment, workforce development and official languages, said “bad actors are taking advantage of people and compromising the program for legitimate businesses. We are putting more reforms in place to stop misuse and fraud from entering the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.”
Proposed reforms include enforcing a 10 per cent cap policy for TFWs, including those in the “dual intent sub-stream”; stricter oversight when processing Labour Market Impact Assessments and possibly increasing LMIA fees; and implementing regulatory changes regarding employer eligibility.
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At issue is the concern that the program is being used to “side-step” hiring qualified Canadians instead of using it to fill an identifiable labour gap, which is the intention of the program.
It’s likely the government’s decision was spurred by the tightening labour market. Canada’s unemployment rate increased to 6.4 per cent in July, the highest it has been since January 2022.
As Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said in a speech to the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce in June, whenever the labour market adjusts to slower growth, some people are affected more than others, particularly younger people and newcomers to Canada.
He noted that the unemployment rate for youth is almost two percentage points higher than it was in 2019, the year before the pandemic, and the unemployment rate for newcomers to Canada is rising much faster than the overall rate.
This dispels the myth that young people and immigrants are not willing to find jobs or work, which is becoming a popular sentiment when job vacancies or employment topics are debated on social media, and around many dinner tables.
I’ve seen and heard more negative comments on Canada’s labour issue in recent months than I care to mention, and I’m embarrassed by some of the ignorance I hear, some of which is coming from my own friends and family.
Ignorance is bliss to some, but it can be dangerous.
Although the agriculture sector — an industry with a demonstrated need to use TFWs to fill labour gaps — was not a primary target of the government’s reforms, this is not obvious to most.
A search on Google for images with the keywords “temporary foreign worker” shows primarily photos of TFWs working in farm fields or picking horticultural crops, with some related to construction or meat processing.
And it’s photos of TFWs on farms that most often accompany media articles and broadcasts, giving the impression that TFWs only work in agriculture.
This could lead to greater scrutiny of the sector, and perhaps be considered to be a “bad actor.”
Kristy Nudds is editor of Farmtario.
