But recommitment to enforcement, inspections could spell hardship for employers: Experts
The national Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) is being used inappropriately by employers seeking labour help, according to a scathing report handed down by Canada’s auditor general in May.
While the intention of the TFWP is to allow employers to hire temporary help as a last resort, the federal government’s inadequate review processes did not consider whether individual employers’ need for labour help was justified, or whether those jobs could be filled by Canadians, said the audit by Michael Ferguson.
Additionally, very few on-site inspections took place, nor did face-to-face interviews with employers and foreign workers, giving organizations the ability to use the program for unintended purposes.
“These findings matter because the program was designed to help employers fill job vacancies that they cannot otherwise fill, and Canadians expect (Employment and Social Development Canada) to manage the program in a way that makes sure the program is used to respond only to real Canadian labour market shortages,” said the report.
The federal government responded swiftly, indicating it would accept all of the report’s recommendations, which ranged from policy overview to the establishment of a quality assurance framework.
“This report confirms the previous government’s serious mismanagement of the TFWP,” said Matt Pascuzzo, press secretary for Labour Minister Patty Hajdu. “It also validates the changes that our government has made since being elected.”
“We have already brought in numerous tough new requirements for employers seeking to hire foreign workers in order to ensure that Canadians are first in line for Canadian jobs,” he said. “Our government’s highest priority is putting Canadians first in line for jobs in Canada, and we firmly believe that the TFWP should only be used as a last resort.”
Playing by the rules
While the program should run in its intended fashion, stricter enforcement could render usage of the TFWP pointless for Canadian employers, said experts.
“It is definitely a message that the TFWP requires much more thorough and effective administrative oversight and supervision in order to work according to the rules,” said Jeffrey Reitz, a sociology professor at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs.
“And if that’s done, it’s not clear to me that the program is really worth the trouble. The proper vetting and administration of the program would be so expensive as to make it possibly not really worthwhile as an option for Canadian employers.”
The difficulty with the TFWP and its rapid expansion under former prime minister Stephen Harper was that proper administration and supervision failed to keep pace, he said.
Then, the government blamed employers for not being entirely clear about what they were going to do with the workers they brought in, said Reitz.
“But it’s the government’s job to administer its own programs and to vet the proposals.”
A total of 79,000 foreign workers were approved for positions in Canada last year — about one-third lower than typical numbers over the past five years.
The TFWP should be Canada-first and enforced, but it also needs to be consistent, transparent and efficient, said Reis Pagtakhan, a corporate immigration lawyer at MLT Aikins in Winnipeg.
“It’s an important program… it has to be there to fill gaps in the workforce,” he said. “One thing the government has to continue to understand is that just because there is a surplus of workers in one part of the country, there may be a shortage in another part of the country — come hell or high water, sometimes those people don’t want to move. Then, what do you do with industry in the other part of the country? You have to allow them to be able to support themselves.”
But stricter enforcement and increased regulation will dissuade employers from using the program, said Pagtakhan.
“Absolutely, it will. You can see that in the numbers over the last few years,” he said. “But we shouldn’t dissuade people from using the program. We should simply be dissuading people from using the program improperly. When used properly, this can fill in important gaps in the workforce in various areas of the country in various industries and occupations.”
Changes will affect employers
In its recent budget, the federal government set aside $280 million over the next five years — and $50 million each year after — to revamp the program.
“We will continue improving the TFWP to ensure that it works for Canadians and for our economy,” said Pascuzzo.
Several changes have been implemented since the Liberal government took office in 2015, he said. They include:
•requiring low-wage employers to advertise job vacancies to underrepresented workforce groups
•working with industries that are heavy users of the TFWP to reduce their reliance on foreign workers
•establishing an employer liaison service in Alberta, to help provincial employers find unemployed domestic workers before resorting to foreign help
•committing to a pathway to permanent residency for foreign workers
•improving the quality of labour market information used in assessing Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs)
•ensuring better compliance by increasing on-site inspections.
The changes will certainly have an effect on employers and HR practitioners across the country, said Diana Jamal-Samborski, an immigration expert at Kahane Law in Calgary.
“I do think that this report is quite detrimental to a lot of employers that rely on foreign workers,” she said. “It’s going to be a lot more difficult for small businesses to hire foreign workers.”
“There’s already quite a lot of paperwork that goes into play for hiring foreign workers, and now there’s likely going to be additional requirements imposed. In addition to having transition plans, I think what they’re going to do is indicate that they now want more information on the applicants who are applying… and whether or not they were interviewed.”
Already, significant numbers of TFWP applications are rejected and costs are significant at $1,000 per applicant plus local job advertising fees, said Jamal-Samborski.
“When employers choose to go down that strain, it’s at a great cost. I don’t think the majority of employers that access the program have the intent to abuse.”
While hiring domestic workers first is a great idea in theory, it doesn’t always work out in practical terms, said Jamal-Samborski.
“In general, just because there’s a high unemployment rate, that doesn’t necessarily mean that those who are unemployed are able to fill the skill set that’s required in the labour market,” she said. “It’s not often that you’ll see an engineer going to work at Tim Hortons, filling your coffee cup.”
“Right now in Alberta, there’s a significant amount of individuals that are engineers who are unemployed, but there is (still) a demand in the food service industry.”
From temporary to permanent
Ferguson’s recommendations are “reasonable and a good idea if implemented correctly,” said Pagtakhan.
Yet, the big picture question remains: What does Canada want to do with the TFWP in terms of permanent residency?
The program should in essence be a probationary permanent resident program, he said.
“That’s really the big question that needs to be answered in the immigration system,” said Pagtakhan. “The big hole in the TFWP in terms of transitioning people to permanent residency is with the lower-skilled foreign workers because there’s no federal pathway for those individuals.”
“It has to be revamped to have a clear pathway to permanent residency for people who are going through this program… and want to stay.”
The best path forward for the TFWP may be in removing the word “temporary” from its name, said Reitz.
Foreign workers in lower-skilled positions often find it feasible to work “underground” past their terms, earning wages that are still much higher than what they would receive in their home country, he said.
“Those folks have a strong incentive to stay after their visas have expired.”
That scenario is leading to a large pool of undocumented immigrants in Canada, which could eventually become a larger social problem, said Reitz.
