The Liberals have implemented changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program to further emphasize hiring domestic workers over prioritizing foreigners.
Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault announced new measures for the Temporary Foreign Worker Program on Monday, aiming to boost domestic hiring by raising the minimum wage threshold for high-wage positions.
The change requiring employers to pay at least 20% above the provincial median to qualify for the high-wage stream under the program will take effect on Nov. 8, 2024.
Boissonnault described the reform as a step toward protecting Canadian workers.
“This change to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program reinforces our commitment to protecting temporary foreign workers, while prioritizing the Canadian workers available to join the labour force,” he said. “By raising the threshold for high-wage stream positions, we are supporting wage growth for Canadians.”
The current program requires employers to pay at least the median hourly wage in their province to secure a Labour Market Impact Assessment to hire temporary foreign workers. The upcoming increase will range from $5 to $8 above existing provincial wage rates. In Ontario, for example, the threshold will rise from $28.39 to $34.07 per hour.
The Liberals said that the changes would result in up to 34,000 jobs moving from the high-wage to the stricter rules of the low-wage stream, which could result in around 20,000 fewer positions being approved through the program.
The low-wage stream includes additional employer requirements related to housing, transportation, and recruitment of workers already in Canada.
The changes also include ending the use of attestations from accountants or lawyers to verify business legitimacy, effective Oct. 28, 2024. Instead, the government will rely more on existing information-sharing agreements with provincial and territorial partners to verify employer claims.
“These measures will help to ensure that only genuine and legitimate job offers are approved, helping prevent misuse of the program and ensuring stronger worker protection,” reads the release.
The federal government’s reduction in targets for temporary foreign workers came following the UN warning that foreign workers were subject to “contemporary slavery” in Canada.
The Temporary Foreign Worker Program has faced criticism for its role in driving up housing costs and increasing the cost of living, as temporary workers contribute to Canada’s growing population.
According to government data from Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada, the country issued 692,760 work permits between Jan. 1, 2023, and Aug. 31, 2023, compared to about 274,690 over the same period in 2022, a 152% increase.
The federal government has recently imposed other restrictions, including capping the number of low-wage foreign workers at 10% of a company’s workforce, which can rise to 20% for “high-demand sectors,” and freezing LMIA applications in regions with an unemployment rate of 6% or higher.
The federal government said they hope to help under-represented groups in the country’s labour market, such as reducing the youth unemployment rate of 13.5% — more than double the national average of 6.5%.
