British Columbia Premier Christy Clark has labeled the changes made to the federal Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) as “tragically misdirected”, citing concerns that the overhaul was having a negative effect on the economy of the province.

Speaking at a Vancouver Board of Trade luncheon this week, Ms. Clark that as Canada gets closer to a federal election campaign, political leaders in Ottawa must stop playing politics over the controversial program. "We should not think about people who come from across the world to British Columbia to work as being something less than the rest of us," she said.

"My advice to federal politicians is this: If you want to fix the temporary foreign workers program, maybe they should start with changing the name. Call them 'potential new Canadians', because they're coming here to help us build our country."

Ms. Clark was adding her voice to that of her Alberta counterpart, Jim Prentice, who raised similar concerns last month. Both British Columbia and Alberta are expected to experience labour shortages in the coming years, and local businesses have stressed that the local labour markets will likely not be able to fill that demand for workers.