'This doesn't make a lot of sense': expert on TFWP changes

The recent changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program are set to take effect on Thursday, and could spell some trouble for businesses, according to one group official.

Effective Sept. 26 this year, the federal government will refuse to process Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs) in the low-wage stream of the TFW program in census metropolitan areas with an unemployment rate of 6% or higher.

But the updated program will restrict workers to one-year contracts, down from the current two. Also, it will limit workplaces to fill only 10% of total positions with foreign workers, down from the previous 20%.

This is the case even though employers spend a lot of time doing paperwork and paying fees to hire international employees, and then put in more time training the employees.

Going forward, it is hardly going to be worth it just for 12 months of work, said Mark von Schellwitz, vice president of the western branch of Restaurants Canada, according to a City News report.

“By the time the workers are actually in the business and contributing to the business, they’ve got a year, which is down from the previous two-year contract,” Schellwitz said in the report.

“That doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

The changes to the program have faced criticism from other stakeholders.

Permanent residency for temporary workers

Instead, von Schellwitz is calling on Ottawa to make the necessary changes to ensure that migrant workers become permanent residents in the country.

“Our real goal is to bring immigrants in, have them become permanent residents, rather than this Band-Aid solution, which is a temporary foreign worker where you get them for one year instead of two years, and you have to send them back and get a new batch again,” he said, according to the City News report.

“We have about a million workers here as refugees or family members of immigrants that aren’t working right now. So, we need a program to match those individuals so we can hire them.”

There have been other stakeholders who have called on the federal government to grant permanent residency to temporary foreign workers.