B.C. premier wants temporary foreign worker program cancelled or reformed

In a surprise statement, Premier David Eby called for the end of Canada’s temporary foreign worker (TFW) program — blaming Ottawa’s flawed immigration policies for filling up homeless shelters and food banks. 

“The temporary foreign worker program is not working. It should be cancelled or significantly reformed,” Eby said during an unrelated announcement in Surrey, B.C., Thursday.

“We can’t have an immigration system that fills up our homeless shelters and our food banks. We can’t have an immigration system that outpaces our ability to build schools and housing. And we can’t have an immigration program that results in high youth unemployment.”

The TFW program allows Canadian employers to use foreign workers to fill temporary jobs when no Canadian workers can be found.

Forged documents

Eby, however, believes the TFW program is being exploited. 

“Here in Surrey where I’m standing right now, serious concerns have been raised about fraud.”

In May, a Surrey immigration firm went public about its name being unwittingly used on forged Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs). 

To be eligible to bring foreign workers in, employers in Canada must provide LMIAs to the federal government, to prove they tried to hire Canadians first but couldn’t.

WATCH | Surrey immigration consultant raises concerns over fraudulent documents: 

Surrey immigration consultant raises concerns over fraudulent documents

A Surrey immigration consultant has raised concerns after discovering her firm was listed in fraudulent employment documents known as Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs). These documents are required by businesses seeking to hire foreign workers and must be obtained from the federal government. However, as Jon Hernandez reports, scammers are selling counterfeit documents to foreign nationals, falsely promising them the chance to live and work in Canada.

Neera Agnihotri, whose firm was cited without authorization in forged LMIAs, said Thursday that fraud is “very common” and the TFW program has been exploited by recruiters and some immigration consultants.

In recent years, fraudsters have used fake LMIAs to prey on foreign workers who need copies of the documents if they want to apply for a temporary work permit. Some foreign nationals have been willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars for them under the false promise it will allow them to legally live and work in Canada.

“Everybody has taken advantage. And the biggest culprit, it’s the government. You know exactly what’s happening right under your nose. What are you doing about it?” Agnihotri said.

However, she doesn’t think the program should be done away with entirely, saying that some of the companies she supports depend on foreign workers to fill jobs that Canadians and permanent residents don’t want to do.

“[They] do not want to work on farms. They do not want to do Tim Hortons or McDonalds. We have to remember, Canada lives and thrives on immigration.” 

Agriculture jobs

David Mutz, who owns Abbotsford-based Berry Haven Farm, says temporary foreign workers are an “integral part” of the agriculture sector. 

Both Eby and Poilievre showed support for a separate program that would allow farmers to continue to use seasonal workers from abroad to fill agriculture jobs.

Canada already has a separate immigration stream for farm workers called the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) that allows employers to bring in workers from Mexico and other participating Caribbean countries.  

Mutz said the SAWP has not had the same problems with fraud compared to the TFW program, and the SAWP could help inform changes to the TFW program.

WATCH | Carney says government is reviewing program:  

Temporary foreign workers aren’t ‘main factor’ in high youth unemployment: economist

The youth unemployment rate in July edged up to its highest level since September 2010, according to Statistics Canada. Fabian Lange, an economics professor at McGill University, tells Power & Politics that it’s ‘not plausible’ this current spike in youth unemployment would be ‘caused by an increase in temporary foreign workers that has been building up over a much longer time period.’

The Canadian Federation for Independent Business says reforms make sense, but scrapping the TFW program entirely “puts politics ahead of sensible policy.” 

Ryan Mitton, the federation’s director of legislative affairs for B.C. said he’s disappointed at Eby’s “misguided comments that unfairly characterize what’s an essential program to our economy.”

“Many small businesses, particularly in rural and remote areas, rely on this program to do work that other people simply don’t want to do,” Mitton told CBC News. “By eliminating this program, it would have catastrophic effects.” 

WATCH | Temporary foreign workers aren’t ‘main factor’ in high youth unemployment, says economist: 

Carney says government is reviewing temporary foreign worker program

Prime Minister Mark Carney said the temporary foreign worker program has a role, but the government is reviewing it along with the immigration system as a whole. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called for the government to scrap the program on Wednesday.

B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad wants B.C. to create its own immigration program so that sectors in need of foreign workers, like farms and tourism, can still get them.

“We need to take control of our own immigration in B.C., making those decisions on behalf of British Columbians, instead of those decisions being made over 4,000 kilometres away,” he said. 

Prime Minister Mark Carney says his government is reviewing the temporary foreign worker program and the immigration system as a whole.

Speaking from Toronto Wednesday, Carney said his government is putting policies in place so that immigration as a proportion of the population will decline from seven to five per cent in the coming years.