Catherine Sas, K.C.For many years, if not decades, Canada has had a love-hate relationship with our foreign worker program. We routinely swing back and forth from facilitating foreign workers to come to Canada to fill labour shortages to restricting the ability of employers to bring temporary labour to the country. At present, we seem to be, once again, at the restrictive and limiting swing of the pendulum. Employers need to know what they are facing in this ever-changing and compliance based environment that is the current norm.
Our temporary foreign worker program (TFWP) has been in effect for years and has become more and more stringent as time goes by. The notion goes that if we make it more difficult and/or expensive for employers to bring foreign workers to Canada, they will turn to the Canadian labour force instead. Practically speaking that simply doesn’t work. The Canadian labour market has demonstrated a continuing unwillingness to accept employment in certain sectors including agricultural work, the hospitality service sector, long haul trucking, commercial cleaning and many other such positions. Notwithstanding the viewpoints of Canada’s Human Resources department, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), wages are not necessarily determinative of this reluctance to accept such employment. Many of the employers that we work with at our firm offer the high wage rate set by ESDC of $28.85 per hour in order to bring workers to Canada to help them keep their businesses running. Nonetheless, whatever program is in place there are bad apples that bring the program into disrepute and that makes it tougher for all Canadian employers.
For many years there have been employers that collude with immigration professionals to entice foreign workers to come to Canada. The aspiring worker/immigrant often pays exorbitant fees to the immigration consultant ($50,000+ is not uncommon) to receive a job offer which enables the individual to apply for a work permit. Upon arrival in Canada the business may not exist, the actual position such as job duties or salary is drastically different than what was offered and/or the employer may impose other harsh terms such as denying overtime pay or not recognizing statutory holidays. All of these things are in breach of Canadian employment laws. Canada’s immigration department has recognized these realities and in June 2019 introduced the “vulnerable persons work permit” to allow people to normalize their working status in Canada and have an opportunity to find a legitimate employer. (For examples of such scams please refer to the CBC article https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/fake-labour-documents-sold-abroad-1.7253257 ).
In the post COVID-19 economic realm, IRCC and ESDC were very facilitative to allow Canadian employers to bring or maintain foreign workers to Canada. Encouraging economic growth was pivotal and with a shortage of labour, many aspects of the TFW program were changed to encourage and allow workers to come to or remain in Canada. For example, the validity period of a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) was extended from six months to eighteen months, and the period of employment of a foreign worker was also increased from two years to three years. There were many other programs that were implemented expanding the opportunities for persons in Canada with temporary status to be able to work to fill ongoing labour shortages. In recent months examples of abuse of the foreign worker program have come to light and, coupled with a slightly higher unemployment rate, government officials are once again clamping down on the TFW program. (See: https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/news/2024/08/minister-boissonnault-announces-new-measures-to-address-fraud-in-canadas-temporary-foreign-worker-program.html ).
Employers need to know the rules of the game for employing foreign workers in Canada. The obligations are significant – such as providing new employees with detailed information about their rights in Canada in both English and French and keeping records of all employment records for a period of six years. ( Please refer to the IRCC document for foreign workers “Get to Know your Rights” https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/services/foreign-workers/protected-rights.html ). The rules of the game have never been more strict and get tougher day by day. If you are facing the need to engage foreign workers for your business demands, you are well advised to fully familiarize yourself with the federal and provincial obligations for Canadian employers and to take steps to avoid a compliance audit or any corresponding penalties.
Please refer to our other blogs about employer obligations for foreign workers in Canada:
- Employer Update: What should Canadian employers be prepared for before hiring foreign workers? – October 3, 2023
- Employer incentives: becoming a ‘Trusted Employer’ to hire foreign workers – August 15, 2023
- Caution is an Employer’s Best Friend – July 18, 2017
- Accessing Canada’s Immigration Programs to Address Labour Shortages: What Employers Need to Know! – May 4, 2015
- Employer Roadblocks for Hiring Foreign Workers Continue! – March 10, 2015
- Foreign Worker Shake Up – What Every Employer Needs to Know! – August 27, 2014
