Proposed Changes to Regulations Regarding Temporary Foreign Workers

The Minister responsible for Citizenship, Immigration, and Multiculturalism recently announced proposed changes to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations which will affect temporary foreign workers.

 

The proposed changes include the following: 

• setting out assessment criteria for the genuineness of the job offer:
• whether the offer is made by an employer that is actively engaged in the business in respect of which the offer is made;
• whether the offer is consistent with the reasonable needs of the employer;
• whether the terms of the offer are terms that the employer is reasonably able to fulfil; and
• the past compliance of the employer, or any person who recruited the foreign worker for the employer, with the federal or provincial laws that regulate employment and recruitment;
• limiting the cumulative time a temporary foreign worker may work in Canada to four years, after which the worker will not be authorized to work in Canada for a period of six years (unless the foreign national intends to perform work pursuant to an international agreement or work that would create significant benefits);
• prohibiting employers from hiring temporary foreign workers if the employers have, in the two-year period preceding the offer, provided wages or working conditions or employed a foreign national in an occupation significantly different from the wages or working condition or occupation offered to the foreign national; and
• establishing a publicized list of employers who are not eligible to hire temporary foreign workers for a two-year period.

These proposed changes are meant to protect temporary foreign workers from exploitation, promote employer compliance with the terms of job offers, and to emphasize that the Temporary Foreign Worker Program is intended to fill short-term labour shortages only.