Canadian govt seeks to reduce the use of temporary foreign workers

Some of the intended actions were outlined during a meeting with business representatives, according to a release from Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC). That meeting was led by Randy Boissonnault, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages, who said, “Bad actors are taking advantage of people and compromising the programme for legitimate businesses. We are putting more reforms in place to stop misuse and fraud from entering the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.”

The Minister said Ottawa “is considering implementing refusal to process under the low wage stream. If implemented, this would prevent employers in certain areas and industries from using the TFW Program.”

The release said the meeting was meant to send “one clear message: the TFW Program cannot be used to circumvent hiring talented workers in Canada, and the federal government will take further action to weed out misuse and fraud within the system.”

ESDC said the TFW Program was “designed to be responsive to changes in the labour market”. After the Covid-19 pandemic, labour market needs were high, and a number of changes were introduced to help employers meet urgent employment needs. “With the labour market returning to a more balanced state, the TFW Program is being readjusted to ensure that only employers with demonstrable labour market needs have access to the Program,” it said.

The announcement comes as pressure mounts on the Government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to control temporary immigration, which also includes those on study permits. High levels of immigration have led to a shelter affordability crisis in Canada and hurt Trudeau’s Liberal Party Government politically.

The news outlet Globe and Mail reported that at the end of 2023, nearly 190,000 people held valid work permits through the TFW program, an increase of 157% from 2019.

It also reported earlier that in the first quarter of this year, employers received government approval to hire 28,730 people through the low-wage stream, an increase of 25% from 2023, the highest quarterly number for such approvals in government records that date to 2016.

According to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) data, there were 183,760 TFWP permits holders in 2023, with those from India comprising 28,215 of them. Till June this year, Indians accounted for 17,095 of the 109,840 permit holders.

In comparison, prior to the Trudeau government assuming charge in late 2015, the numbers were much smaller: Indians formed 1955 of the overall 72,960 TFWP work permits holders that year.

Om March 21 this year, IRCC announced its intent to curb the intake of non-permanent residents (NPRs) to reduce their share of the population from 6.2% to 5% over three years.

However, in its Monetary Policy Report released on July 24, Bank of Canada (BoC) offered a distinctly different read of the situation, as it said, “Overall, this implied that the annual population growth rate would decline by about 2 percentage points in 2025 and 2026. NPRs represented 6.8% of the population at the beginning of April — much higher than at the time of the March announcement — and the share is expected to continue rising over the near term. This suggests that it will take longer for planned policies to reduce NPR inflows to achieve the 5% target.”

NPRs comprise international students, temporary workers and refugees with the first category contributing the bulk.