Just under a month from now, the rules surrounding temporary foreign workers in Canada are going to change, the federal government announced yesterday.
Starting September 26, the government will refuse applications for low-wage temporary foreign workers in regions with an unemployment rate of six per cent or higher. In addition, employers will be allowed to hire a maximum of 10 percent of their workforce from the temporary foreign worker program, down from 20 percent.
In addition, workers hired through this program will now only be allowed to work for one year, down from two years. Exceptions will be made for sectors like health care and construction.
The announcement came down yesterday as the federal Liberals began their cabinet retreat in Halifax. Originally, the rules around temporary foreign workers were loosened to help businesses fill a void in the labour market after the pandemic, but the economic climate has now changed.
According to the Canadian Press, at that time there were about a million job vacancies in Canada despite unemployment dipping to 4.9 percent. Since then, however, job vacancies have declined and unemployment has risen. Statistics Canada put unemployment at 6.4 percent in July.
Canada welcomed over 468,000 immigrants last year, and that number is slated to rise to 500,000 next year.
