Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has cautioned Canadian businesses against relying on migrant labour as a fundamental aspect of their operations, as the federal government reinstates a cap on the number of foreign workers allowed on payroll. Blacklock's Reporter says the 10% limit, first introduced in 2014 under then-Employment Minister Jason Kenney, will take effect again on September 6, following a surge in Temporary Foreign Worker Program admissions last year.“At the end of the day, if you as a business think you need more, we have some real concerns about your business model,” Freeland told reporters, emphasizing the importance of sustainable hiring practices. The government’s move comes in response to the 766,520 migrants admitted to Canada under the program in 2023.Freeland stressed the need for businesses to prioritize hiring local talent over temporary foreign workers. “We do have to be mindful not to have abuses, not to have an economy, not to have business models built on low wages, sometimes exploited temporary foreign workers,” she said. “That kind of approach is the one I think makes immigration to Canada socially and economically sustainable.”She urged employers to consider the local workforce first, stating, “There are Canadians in your city who need a job. Look to them and offer those jobs to them. I think it makes a lot of sense to say we’re not going to have more than 10% of people at a workplace be temporary foreign workers.”The reinstatement of the cap reverses a decision made by the Liberal government two years ago. The original cap was introduced after public outcry over cases where Canadian workers were replaced by foreign labour, such as the Royal Bank’s controversial move to have Canadian IT staff train their South Asian replacements and HD Mining International Ltd.’s hiring of 201 Chinese miners after listing Mandarin as a job requirement.Protests also arose when McDonald’s Canada franchisees in British Columbia were found to have replaced local staff with foreign workers, prompting a temporary moratorium on foreign hiring by restaurants.“The objective is to encourage employers, small and large, to put Canadians first,” Kenney said at the time. “We hope that by tightening the program we will encourage employers to do more work within their communities to find and employ local unemployed Canadians.”A 2014 Department of Employment study revealed significant public concern over the use of migrant workers, with 68% of Canadians surveyed believing employers were not doing enough to recruit locally. Additionally, 62% agreed that employers struggling to find Canadian workers should raise wages before turning to foreign labour.The study also found that more than a third of Canadians, 34%, supported abolishing the Temporary Foreign Worker Program altogether, with particularly high support for a ban in Newfoundland and Labrador (67%), Nova Scotia (40%), and Saskatchewan (39%).
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has cautioned Canadian businesses against relying on migrant labour as a fundamental aspect of their operations, as the federal government reinstates a cap on the number of foreign workers allowed on payroll. Blacklock's Reporter says the 10% limit, first introduced in 2014 under then-Employment Minister Jason Kenney, will take effect again on September 6, following a surge in Temporary Foreign Worker Program admissions last year.“At the end of the day, if you as a business think you need more, we have some real concerns about your business model,” Freeland told reporters, emphasizing the importance of sustainable hiring practices. The government’s move comes in response to the 766,520 migrants admitted to Canada under the program in 2023.Freeland stressed the need for businesses to prioritize hiring local talent over temporary foreign workers. “We do have to be mindful not to have abuses, not to have an economy, not to have business models built on low wages, sometimes exploited temporary foreign workers,” she said. “That kind of approach is the one I think makes immigration to Canada socially and economically sustainable.”She urged employers to consider the local workforce first, stating, “There are Canadians in your city who need a job. Look to them and offer those jobs to them. I think it makes a lot of sense to say we’re not going to have more than 10% of people at a workplace be temporary foreign workers.”The reinstatement of the cap reverses a decision made by the Liberal government two years ago. The original cap was introduced after public outcry over cases where Canadian workers were replaced by foreign labour, such as the Royal Bank’s controversial move to have Canadian IT staff train their South Asian replacements and HD Mining International Ltd.’s hiring of 201 Chinese miners after listing Mandarin as a job requirement.Protests also arose when McDonald’s Canada franchisees in British Columbia were found to have replaced local staff with foreign workers, prompting a temporary moratorium on foreign hiring by restaurants.“The objective is to encourage employers, small and large, to put Canadians first,” Kenney said at the time. “We hope that by tightening the program we will encourage employers to do more work within their communities to find and employ local unemployed Canadians.”A 2014 Department of Employment study revealed significant public concern over the use of migrant workers, with 68% of Canadians surveyed believing employers were not doing enough to recruit locally. Additionally, 62% agreed that employers struggling to find Canadian workers should raise wages before turning to foreign labour.The study also found that more than a third of Canadians, 34%, supported abolishing the Temporary Foreign Worker Program altogether, with particularly high support for a ban in Newfoundland and Labrador (67%), Nova Scotia (40%), and Saskatchewan (39%).
