Ottawa to give priority to Canadians in TFW program review?
Will they benefit or not? Temporary Foreign Workers are facing another round of changes in the planned review of the foreign worker program. PHOTOS BY JHONG DE LA CRUZ
RED DEER, Alberta – The Canadian employment minister’s hint of giving priority to Canadian workers might become the centerpiece of the planned review of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.
Minister Maryann Mihychuk for Canada’s Employment, Workforce Development and Labour, in an emailed statement to INQUIRER.net said, “I believe in addressing issues such as helping more Canadians find good jobs available across the country, helping Canadian businesses grow and prosper, and how to offer people accessing the program a path to citizenship.”
The review aims to bring clarity, focus and accountability to the program, she said. Mihychuk stressed reforms should help Canadian workers “find good jobs, get back to work, and strengthen the Canadian economy..
In February, Mihychuk announced plans to initiate a full-scale review of the federal program, starting by having a House of Commons committee review the program and come up with advice for improvements.
Workers failed
The minister, who belongs to the Liberal Party, the winning party in the last election, criticized the changes implemented by the Conservative government to the TFW program in 2014.
She said, “I have heard from businesses, from worker advocates, Members of Parliament and others across Canada that the Temporary Foreign Worker system needs to change.”
TFWs would like permanent residence status, hence the call “Good enough to work, good enough to stay!”
“The Previous Government’s plan failed workers, businesses and Canadians, and undermined confidence in the program,” she added.
Pressed to give more details about the planned review, she said, “With Committees just beginning their work, it’s too soon to know details such as timing or next steps.”
The Alberta Federation of Labour, composed of Canadian workers’ unions in Alberta, wants to scrap the TFW program. AFL noted that employers are only using the program to drive down wages for other workers in the province and has created an environment where foreign workers get abused.
AFL would like the program phased out after permanent status for foreign workers already present in Canada.
Stakeholders
Supporters of the foreign worker sector maintain they should be at the table when the TFW program review takes place.
“They are part of the stakeholders. Their rights are at stake, they need to be heard too,” said Marco Luciano of Migrante Canada, a member organization of the alliance group Coalition for Migrant Worker Rights in Canada (CMWRC).
The group is calling for open work permits and permanent status for foreign workers upon entry to Canada, fearing that an “underground economy” would result from a wave of foreign workers in Canada without proper documents.
The coalition is also urging the government to rescind the “4 in, 4 out” rule, where foreign workers have to leave Canada after 4 years if not granted a permanent status. “Given the conditions in their home countries, they will decide to stay with or without papers…many have,” he said.
He said that granting permanent resident status would favor employers and the government.
“Employers do not have to pay the government $1000 because they would be hiring workers with permanent status. It would also shut down unscrupulous agencies, helping the government in return,” he added.
An estimated 83,740 temporary foreign workers entered Canada in 2013, or .44 percent of the total workforce. This brought the total number of foreign workers to over 338,000.
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