April 29th 2013, the Government of Canada announced major changes to its sprawling Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program.
It has been known for several months that some program reforms have been in the works. However, the government was spurred to take swift action by a national debate on foreign workers in Canada. The debate was largely prompted by a series of high-profile alleged abuses of the program.
The TFW Program
Temporary foreign workers make up a significant portion of the Canadian workforce. In 2012 alone, over 213,000 new workers entered Canada through the TFW program. This is more than three times the amount of temporary workers admitted to Canada a decade ago.
In order for an employer to hire a foreign worker, they must generally first receive a positive Labour Market Opinion (LMO). A positive LMO states that hiring a foreign worker will have a positive or neutral effect on the Canadian labour market. In order to receive a positive LMO, an employer must successfully demonstrate that they have been unable to adequately fill the position with a Canadian citizen or permanent resident.
To prove their need for a foreign worker, an employer is generally asked to provide evidence of recruitment efforts in Canada. They must also agree to meet federal and provincial labour standards. Recently, TFW rules were amended to allow employers to pay their foreign workers up to 15% below the prevailing wage for a given position, as long as their Canadian employees were working at the same wage. A fast-track program called the Accelerated Labour Market Opinion (ALMO) was also implemented to issue LMOs to qualifying employers within 10 business days.
Changes to the TFW Program
Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Human Resources Minister Diane Finley jointly announced yesterday’s changes. They are as follows:
Effective immediately, employers must pay temporary foreign workers at the prevailing wage by removing the existing wage flexibility;
Effective immediately, temporarily suspend the ALMO process;
Increase the government’s authority to suspend and revoke work permits and LMOs if the program is being misused;
Add questions to employer LMO application forms to ensure that the TFWP is not used to facilitate the outsourcing of Canadian jobs;
Ensure that employers who rely on temporary foreign workers have a firm plan in place to transition to a Canadian workforce over time through the LMO process;
Introduce fees for employers for the processing of LMOs and increase the fees for work permits so that the taxpayers are no longer subsidizing the costs; and
Identify English and French as the only languages that can be used as a job requirement.
The Seasonal Agriculture Worker Program, as well as other agricultural occupations, will be exempt from all but the third reform.
Motivation for the Changes
These changes have been announced amidst a national controversy regarding the role of the TFW program in Canada’s economy. Two recent incidents have brought this issue to the forefront.
Most recently, the Royal Bank of Canada, a major Canadian financial institution, was found to have replaced Canadian workers with labour from abroad. The foreign workers were brought to Canada, resulting in the laying off of 45 Canadians. Replacing Canadian labour with foreign labour is explicitly forbidden, leaving many to speculate that the company was using loopholes to manipulate the program.
Another controversy from earlier this year involved a Canadian mining company ostensibly passing over qualified local workers to instead hire 200 miners from China. One of the job requirements was knowledge of Chinese, which was widely criticized as a ploy to deliberately exclude otherwise qualified Canadian miners in favour of cheaper labour.
Minister Finley reinforced the need for program reform, saying:
“The purpose of the TFW program is to help fill genuine and acute labour needs and we have been reviewing the program to ensure that goal is met and Canadian workers are never displaced.”
Many of the aforementioned reforms speak directly to these concerns.
At the end of the day, while the TFW program is slowly being reformed, it remains an integral part of Canada’s economic and immigration policy
It has been known for several months that some program reforms have been in the works. However, the government was spurred to take swift action by a national debate on foreign workers in Canada. The debate was largely prompted by a series of high-profile alleged abuses of the program.
The TFW Program
Temporary foreign workers make up a significant portion of the Canadian workforce. In 2012 alone, over 213,000 new workers entered Canada through the TFW program. This is more than three times the amount of temporary workers admitted to Canada a decade ago.
In order for an employer to hire a foreign worker, they must generally first receive a positive Labour Market Opinion (LMO). A positive LMO states that hiring a foreign worker will have a positive or neutral effect on the Canadian labour market. In order to receive a positive LMO, an employer must successfully demonstrate that they have been unable to adequately fill the position with a Canadian citizen or permanent resident.
To prove their need for a foreign worker, an employer is generally asked to provide evidence of recruitment efforts in Canada. They must also agree to meet federal and provincial labour standards. Recently, TFW rules were amended to allow employers to pay their foreign workers up to 15% below the prevailing wage for a given position, as long as their Canadian employees were working at the same wage. A fast-track program called the Accelerated Labour Market Opinion (ALMO) was also implemented to issue LMOs to qualifying employers within 10 business days.
Changes to the TFW Program
Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Human Resources Minister Diane Finley jointly announced yesterday’s changes. They are as follows:
Effective immediately, employers must pay temporary foreign workers at the prevailing wage by removing the existing wage flexibility;
Effective immediately, temporarily suspend the ALMO process;
Increase the government’s authority to suspend and revoke work permits and LMOs if the program is being misused;
Add questions to employer LMO application forms to ensure that the TFWP is not used to facilitate the outsourcing of Canadian jobs;
Ensure that employers who rely on temporary foreign workers have a firm plan in place to transition to a Canadian workforce over time through the LMO process;
Introduce fees for employers for the processing of LMOs and increase the fees for work permits so that the taxpayers are no longer subsidizing the costs; and
Identify English and French as the only languages that can be used as a job requirement.
The Seasonal Agriculture Worker Program, as well as other agricultural occupations, will be exempt from all but the third reform.
Motivation for the Changes
These changes have been announced amidst a national controversy regarding the role of the TFW program in Canada’s economy. Two recent incidents have brought this issue to the forefront.
Most recently, the Royal Bank of Canada, a major Canadian financial institution, was found to have replaced Canadian workers with labour from abroad. The foreign workers were brought to Canada, resulting in the laying off of 45 Canadians. Replacing Canadian labour with foreign labour is explicitly forbidden, leaving many to speculate that the company was using loopholes to manipulate the program.
Another controversy from earlier this year involved a Canadian mining company ostensibly passing over qualified local workers to instead hire 200 miners from China. One of the job requirements was knowledge of Chinese, which was widely criticized as a ploy to deliberately exclude otherwise qualified Canadian miners in favour of cheaper labour.
Minister Finley reinforced the need for program reform, saying:
“The purpose of the TFW program is to help fill genuine and acute labour needs and we have been reviewing the program to ensure that goal is met and Canadian workers are never displaced.”
Many of the aforementioned reforms speak directly to these concerns.
At the end of the day, while the TFW program is slowly being reformed, it remains an integral part of Canada’s economic and immigration policy