In the News: Opinion: Here's Why Canada Needs Open Permits for Foreign Workers

Catherine Connelly is a Canada Research Chair and professor of organizational behaviour at the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University, and the author of Enduring Work: Experiences with Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program, published by McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Big changes to the temporary-foreign-worker program are constantly being announced, but the actual changes tend to fall short of the hype. For example, the number of low-wage temporary foreign workers in some sectors has been recently capped at 20 per cent per workplace instead of the previous 30-per-cent limit, and a labour market impact assessment (LMIA) will now be valid for only six months instead of one year. (The assessments are used to determine whether Canadian workers are available for a job before a foreign worker may be hired.) A Senate report is proposing more changes to the TFW program. Will they make a difference?

All this tinkering has been a lost opportunity. Concern about temporary foreign workers’ impact on the economy has overshadowed the issue of the workers’ welfare, which is no less important.

Every year, more and more employers are fined or blacklisted for abusing workers or otherwise misusing the TFW program. Clearly, compliance monitoring has not been able to prevent this. Unscrupulous employers – whose shady practices make it tougher for them to recruit Canadians – can be tempted to underpay or otherwise mistreat their temporary foreign workers without worrying they will quit and work elsewhere. Even the threat of workers quitting will be enough to prevent some abuses.

Read the full op ed in The Globe and Mail