Immigration minister calls era of “unlimited supply of cheap labour” at an end

The era of an “unlimited supply of cheap labour” in Canada is over, says Immigration Minister Marc Miller.

According to a report from Global News, Miller said employers may need to start offering higher wages to Canadian workers while speaking to the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade Wednesday.

The comments come following several recently-announced reforms to the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program by the federal government. Recent rules limit the number of TFWs employers may hire in areas with low unemployment and last week, a 20 per cent increase to hourly wage for TFWs came into effect.

Per the Global news report, Miller specifically pointed to agriculture as a low-wage sector in which “there are exploitative relationships that exist.”

More reductions and limits on the TFW program would likely mean more pressure on Canadian producers to hire local labour.