Pullback comes after widespread uptake along with allegations of fraud and abuse
by Laura Dhillon Kane
Canada will restrict businesses’ access to a program that allows them to recruit low-wage foreign labour after it exploded in size, spurring allegations of fraud and abuse.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday that firms will be limited to hiring 10% of their workforce under the low-wage stream of the temporary foreign worker program, from 20% previously, according to a news release.
The 10% cap had previously been in place until 2022, when Trudeau’s government doubled it — and tripled it for some sectors — as employers complained of labour shortages amid the pandemic.
At that time, his government also scrapped a provision that had banned businesses from accessing the low-wage foreign worker stream if the local unemployment rate was above 6%. The news release said that cap was being reinstated.
The unemployment rate in Canada has risen to 6.4% and sits at 14.2% for the youngest workers, the highest level in more than a decade outside the pandemic.
Meanwhile, the temporary foreign worker program has nearly doubled in size between 2021 and 2023, with 240,000 permits approved last year. About a fifth of those positions were in jobs most common in restaurants and retail.
The low-wage stream of the program allows firms to hire a foreigner on a temporary basis for a maximum of two years. Businesses are supposed to show that they’ve advertised the job and were unable to find a Canadian.
Copyright Bloomberg News
