The B.C. Chamber of Commerce (BCCC) this morning slammed new federal regulations governing Canada's temporary foreign worker (TFW) program.
Ottawa announced new rules governing the program on April 29. The changes include imposing an unspecified fee on employers who want to bring workers in from outside Canada.
"These changes will hit many B.C. businesses hard – especially small businesses," said BCCC CEO John Winter. "Many of the small B.C. businesses that rely on this program don't have the deep pockets to weather new costs and can't afford to have empty positions with no workers available to fill them."
Winter added that businesses in a range of sectors rely on the TFW program to hire workers who have skills that no available Canadians possess.
Critics, however, have lambasted the program for allowing companies to include unnecessary skills in job descriptions.
B.C. miner HD Mining, for example, required that its miners be fluent in Mandarin.
The Conservative government is changing rules to make sure that situation never arises again. One of its new regulations identifies English and French as the only languages that can be used as a job requirement.
In a news release, however, Winter had nothing positive to say about the changes.
"The federal government asked us for our view on this program, but has ignored it completely," Winter said. "This is a serious overreaction on the government's part. The program worked."
