Advocates for both workers and employers are unimpressed with the Liberal government’s changes to Canada’s temporary foreign worker program.

The government initially loosened the program’s regulations for the low-wage stream in 2022, in response to a post-pandemic labour shortage. But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday that the government will now scale back the number of temporary foreign workers in Canada after a historic surge in recent years.

“We need Canadian businesses to invest in training and technology, not increasing their reliance on low-cost foreign labour,” Trudeau said during a news conference in Halifax.

“It’s not fair to Canadians struggling to find a good job, and it’s not fair to those temporary foreign workers, some of whom are being mistreated and exploited.”

But worker advocates say the government is “scapegoating” temporary foreign workers by blaming them for rising unemployment.

“High unemployment, low wages and unaffordable housing is not being caused by immigrants and migrants — these are caused by employer exploitation and policy failures,” said Syed Hussan, executive director of Migrant Workers Alliance for Change.

“Migrants build communities, and they deserve equal rights and respect, not scapegoating,” he said.

Syed Hussan, executive director of Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, speaks to demonstrators in front of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada’s offices in Toronto in August 2020. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press)

Raul Gatica of migrant worker advocacy group Dignidad Migrante Society said the solution is to ensure employers offer better pay and better conditions for their workers.

“Temporary foreign workers were able to do the work that nobody wanted to do … and now we are disposable. They use us and now they throw us away,” he said.

One in 10 temporary foreign workers earned less than $7,500 annually in 2019, according to a Statistics Canada report published in May.

A recent UN report called the temporary foreign workers program a “breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery,” in part due to so-called “closed work permits” that only allow employees to work for the employer who applied to bring them to Canada.

Gatica criticized the government for making changes to the work permit system.

“Mr. Trudeau is using temporary foreign workers as a scapegoat instead of taking responsibility to provide us [with] the open work permit [that] will save us from exploitation,” Gatica said.

Both Gatica and Hussan blasted the government for backing down on a promise to offer residency status to all undocumented workers, which they said would have offered the workers more protection.

A recent UN report labelled Canada’s temporary foreign worker program a ‘breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery.’ (Ivanoh Demers/Radio-Canada)

Dan Kelly, president and CEO of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said some of the adjustments to the program make sense, but he cautioned that some sectors including the rural tourism industry will be negatively affected.

“There are some communities where there is virtually no one to hire into hospitality jobs. There [isn’t] a lineup of Canadians willing to move to some high-cost centres to take these positions, and yet they are pretty important employers that really do add a lot of value to Canada,” he said.

But while Kelly said he felt the recent UN report about Canada’s temporary foreign worker program was overblown, he agreed that the government should offer a clearer pathway for workers to achieve permanent residency status.

“I think everybody agrees we don’t want to have people that are in Canada for decade after decade without the same full labour market mobility rights as other Canadians,” he said.

Government says changes will alleviate stress on housing

Trudeau and his cabinet suggested part of the motivation for the program changes was to address Canada’s ongoing housing crisis.

But Phil Triadafilopoulos, a professor at the University of Toronto who studies immigration, said he’s skeptical about how much of a dent the reduction in temporary foreign workers will make on housing demand.

“This is more of a political statement than a significant policy statement,” he said.

“I think reducing intake on the low-skilled or low-wage temporary foreign worker program, that’s a very small step to what is a big issue.”

Immigration more broadly has become a major point of political debate, especially as it relates to affordability issues such as housing. A Leger poll conducted in July found 60 per cent of respondents said there are too many immigrants coming to Canada.

Triadafilopoulos said Trudeau’s announcement was likely a reaction to such polls.

“It’s starting to affect public opinion in part because it’s dovetailed with a significant housing crisis, and the two issues, for better or worse, have become implicated with each other,” he said.

Triadafilopoulos said the government would need to look at other programs if it intends to lower demands on housing through the immigration system.

Trudeau did suggest Monday that the government is looking at altering its overall immigration levels plan, but Kelly cautioned against going too far in the opposite direction.

“If you look at the long term picture for Canada, we are going to be in big trouble if we don’t continue to have a steady flow of immigrants to supplement our aging population,” he said.

“We’ve got to be careful that we don’t lose sight of the larger benefits of Canada’s more robust immigration system.”