Numbers of low-skilled temporary foreign workers rose despite push to curtail program
The number of low-skill temporary foreign workers entering Canada continued to grow in the first quarter of 2014 despite government efforts to reduce the impact of the controversial program.
Through the end of March, the number admitted was up by more than 6 per cent compared with the same period the year before, to 14,216, according to preliminary estimates from Citizenship and Immigration Canada. The continued growth in this section of the program, after a suite of reforms in 2013, may have influenced the government’s decision to announce strict new rules four months ago, changes that have brought criticism from business groups concerned they’ll be unable to meet their labour needs.
Some low-skill temporary workers are employed in the hospitality and food-service sector, and their presence has proved contentious when they’ve been hired in areas of high unemployment or when they’ve replaced Canadians. A Globe and Mail investigation recently found temporary foreign workers (TFWs) employed by a cafeteria owner on an Alberta First Nation reserve where estimates suggest seven in 10 people are out of work.
Employment Minister Jason Kenney announced in June that his department would no longer process applications from employers if the regional unemployment rate in their place of business exceeds 6 per cent. That 6-per-cent threshold, however, does not reflect the high levels of unemployment on First Nations reserves because Statscan’s Labour Force Survey excludes people living on reserves.
The rise in low-skill workers entering in 2014 is part of a pattern of growth in recent years, as their numbers grew by 22 per cent from a little more than 45,000 in 2010 to more than 55,000 in 2013. The new measures announced by the government in June are intended to make it more difficult to import TFWs, but figures that might reflect the impact of those changes aren’t yet available.
The office of Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander declined to comment for this article and directed questions to the department. The department’s e-mailed response referred to the changes put in place in 2013 and to additional changes made in 2014. It did not respond to The Globe’s questions about why the numbers continued to grow.
This year’s increase in low-skill TFWs came despite a major government effort, announced in April, 2013, to clamp down on the TFW program and make it a last resort in cases of “acute skills shortages.” Last October, Mr. Alexander told The Globe that while he couldn’t predict what the year-end numbers would be, the total number of TFWs entering Canada would be “almost certainly in a different place.” But by the end of 2013, the number of TFWs that had entered Canada was higher.
The Conservative government took another run at reforming the program four months ago, announcing a much higher application fee, caps on the number of low-skilled workers a business can employ and stricter requirements on advertising the job and recruiting Canadians.
The jump in low-skill entrants to Canada comes at the same time that preliminary estimates show a decline in the total number of TFWs admitted from January to March. That decline, though, is the result of a significant drop in the number of highly skilled TFWs granted entry. The low-skill group, meanwhile, grew across all categories, for live-in-caregivers, seasonal agricultural workers, and the low-skill pilot program that includes restaurant and hotel workers among others. Many critics of the program have been careful to state they are not opposed to the movement of high-level employees in fields such as business and academia, but question why jobs that require little formal training are being given to workers from overseas.
“We’ve seen a steady and I think it’s safe to say an exponential increase in the use of this program to address needs which, in a significant percentage of cases, are not indeed temporary labour market shortages,” said Sharry Aiken, a Queen’s University law professor.
She said the case uncovered by The Globe of a non-aboriginal cafeteria owner employing TFWs on the Ermineskin and Samson First Nations, for example, was “appalling.”
“If the Canadian public needed an example of just how egregiously this program has been misused that’s it. I mean, really, an employer making a case that there’s no one to work in a cafeteria on a reserve?”
Some aboriginal leaders have expressed frustration with the way employers, particularly in Western Canada, have turned to the TFW program rather than investing in the local work force. Despite the economic boom in Canada’s western provinces, many aboriginal communities continue to suffer unemployment rates much higher than the general population. One of the new rules introduced in June requires that employers demonstrate that they’ve reached out to aboriginals and other groups that are less represented in the work force before work permits are granted.
“Drilling down on the temporary foreign worker program, I don’t think it works for the majority of First Nations or aboriginal people,” said the Assembly of First Nations Alberta regional chief Cameron Alexis. “At the end of the day, we’re being left out.”
Comment:
"Economic anarchy 101
Will it ever end?
First we were told by Jason Kenney that there was a need for
unskilled and skilled trades workers in Canada.
- Then were told that employers should switch from foreign skilled trades workers by training entry level Canadian workers. The logic here was that there was a pool of Canadians at the entry level whose employers would jump at the chance to get a $10,000 Job Grant to train tradespersons.
- Then we were told that employers should stay away from foreign entry level workers and pay more money to Canadian entry level workers. The logic here was that Canadians wanted to start their careers at the entry level .
- Then we were told that government had successfully cut, by 74%, the number of employers looking to recruit skilled tradespersons. The logic here was that there was pool of interested and available tradespersons.
- Now we are told that the entry level foreign workers are pouring in.
- All the time, we are told that government knows best. Business in the GTA cannot be trusted to manage its own affairs Government says yes to the agriculture sector, the care giving sector, everybody in the West, nobody in the GTA…
- During all of the above, Kenney has acknowledged that he pays no attention to Labour Market data simply because none exists
Jason Kenney reminds me of the old Maoists… these are the
ruthless professional politicians who practice
constant turmoil as the best means of retaining political power.
Chairman Mao, and Minister Kenney, share three qualities:
- They never met a payroll
- They are adept at manipulating followers through the chanting of philosophic mantras
- The only reason for their public policy is the retention of power
Logic, good data and the common good are irrelevant... the
economy is a toy
For these economic anarchists it’s all about playing to
peoples’ fears.
When things don’t work out, just blame the employers… the
foreigners… the exploiters in the cities… the politically established.
In a way, Kenney is a better Maoist than Mao. After all, the
Chairman was a loyal member of the communist party... Meanwhile Minister
Kenney’s ambition has driven his sense of inconsistency into the twilight zone
… From Liberal to Reform to Alliance to Conservative to Wild Rose... from free
enterpriser to government apparatchik... from human rights activist defending
the Uygers and Tibetans to super cop arresting workers in the GTA.
I can’t wait for the Minister to swim the Bow River. It’ll
probably happen right after the next election and just before the leadership
convention.
I wonder if we get a big portrait of the Minister on the
Peace Tower. "
Richard Boraks, Oct 27, 2014
