Federal government adds more rules to discourage use of temporary foreign workers

The federal government is making changes to Canada’s temporary foreign worker (TFW) programs to reduce the use of temporary foreign workers in Canada, it announced today.

“Bad actors are taking advantage of people and compromising the program for legitimate businesses. We are putting more reforms in place to stop misuse and fraud from entering the Temporary Foreign Worker Program,” said Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages, Randy Boissonnault, in a news release today.

The reforms include:

According to the release, Boissonnault, in a meeting with business associations, said he is considering implementing refusal to process under the low wage stream to prevent employers from certain areas and industries from accessing temporary foreign workers.

“While the majority of employers use the program for its intended purpose, more work is required to protect the Canadian labour market and hold bad actors accountable,” the news release said. “The Minister will closely monitor employer demand for the TFW Program, as well as the employment rate, and is willing to take further tightening measures where required.”

In March, the federal government announced that some sectors, including food processing and food service, would be allowed no more than 20 per cent of their workforce to be made up of TFWs, down from 30 per cent in 2022 and 2023.

This was billed as a bid to reduce Canada’s reliance on foreign workers.

The meat processing sector said this would add to its already significant workforce challenges and denied it was overly reliant on TFWs.