We are an East Indian sweets distribution company which started off as a local retail outlet in 2001 in Surrey, B.C. We began with only two employees, and it’s with the help of the foreign workers we hired within the first few years of operation that we excelled to be able to provide jobs to … Continue reading
Given the benefits provided by Canada’s lower-skilled TFW’s, why has the public’s perception of the program been negatively skewed? First, rare and isolated abuses of TFWs have been reported by the media. The solution to these transgressions is to fine the offending firms, and not to curtail a successful TFW labour program. What of the … Continue reading
Not one Canadian employer of temporary foreign workers has been inspected to date despite a Conservative government promise to do so during last year’s initial overhaul of the controversial program. Now, with additional changes to the program to be announced Friday, questions are swirling around why Ottawa has been so slow to act on a … Continue reading
Changes to the temporary foreign workers program will include a cap on the number of workers coming to Canada for low-wage jobs, and heavy fines for employers who break the rules, CTV News has learned. Employment Minister Jason Kenney will announce the changes during a news conference Friday. The limit on low-wage workers will apply … Continue reading
While debate about the future of the foreign worker program, and an increase in immigrants more generally, continues to rage across Canada, a different kind of discussion is taking place here. In the cafes and tourist shops that line Banff Avenue, the conversation centres not on whether transitory new immigrants are stealing jobs from long-time … Continue reading
Thousands of temporary foreign workers already on the job in Canada and in the midst of renewing their work permits are left in limbo by the moratorium on the fast food industry imposed by Federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney. If the moratorium is not lifted within 90 days, most of these workers will be forced … Continue reading
Statistics show the number of temporary foreign workers employed in Windsor has more than doubled since 2009. The website for the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration shows 614 were employed in 2009. That number jumped to 1,550 in 2012, the last year for which data is available on the Citizenship and Immigration Canada website. The … Continue reading
A cabinet minister in the Harper government was warned two years ago that jobs were going to temporary foreign workers even in areas where there were Canadians available to do them, according to internal documents. In notes prepared for then-Human Resources Minister Diane Finley, HRSDC warned of a “disconnect between the Temporary Foreign Worker program” … Continue reading
Since easier access to a large supply of foreign labour might generate undesirable incentives on the part of both employers and prospective workers, a Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program requires careful design. Failure at any stage of the process – at time of hiring, during employment, or at the end of the contract – is … Continue reading
Amid a roar of criticism, Employment Minister Jason Kenney took action Thursday against the government’s scandal-ridden temporary foreign worker program by banning restaurants from accessing it. Kenney issued the surprise moratorium hours after the C.D. Howe Institute released a scathing study into the program that concluded it had spurred joblessness in B.C. and Alberta, two … Continue reading
Sandy Nelson can’t fight back the tears as she talks about losing her long-term serving job to temporary foreign workers. “How can that be right, that they’re not Canadians? I’m a Canadian,” said Nelson, 58, who worked at Brothers Classic Grill and Pizza [previously called El Rancho] in Weyburn, Sask., for 28 years. “How can it … Continue reading
The federal government approved the hiring of hockey coaches through the temporary foreign worker program – an immigration stream meant only for jobs Canadians can’t fill. In six cases since 2010, the government approved Labour Market Opinion (LMO) applications to bring in hockey coaches under the TFW program, documents obtained through the Access to Information … Continue reading
The federal investigation into McDonald’s use of temporary foreign workers has widened to several other locations, as more local workers speak out about feeling sidelined and shortchanged. “I feel it’s definitely discrimination against Canadians,” said Chris Eldridge, from Lethbridge, Alta. Eldridge just quit his managerial job for six McDonald’s locations in Alberta, because he said … Continue reading
The problem with the system is that it’s arbitrary and doesn’t meet the needs of employers Continue reading
Author and Carleton University economics professor Christopher Worswick said a cap is needed to “ensure the program does not grow too large.” Continue reading