A Canadian union is calling for existing temporary foreign workers to be allowed to stay in Canada as immigrants, as well as a complete overhaul of the controversial program.
The program has been under fire since media reports surfaced of employers in the fast food and other industries abusing the program by allegedly mistreating workers or not considering qualified Canadians for jobs.
“We must be sensitive to the plight of workers who were brought to Canada by employers using — and often abusing — the temporary foreign worker program," said Ken Neumann, national director for the United Steelworkers (USW).
"It is unfair to impose a sudden and complete suspension of the program without giving hundreds of thousands of temporary workers the right to remain in Canada."
Neumann told Business in Vancouver he would like to see more focus on training local people for jobs.
Under the current program, temporary foreign workers’ residency in Canada is dependent on them working for the employer who applied to bring them into the country. Economists and labour leaders have warned that can lead to exploitation of the workers.
The RCMP is currently investigating the owner of a Tim Hortons franchise in Fernie, British Columbia who allegedly mistreated temporary foreign workers.
Giving temporary foreign workers full immigrant status would eliminate the potential for abuse, said the USW.
In 2013, the federal government increased the program’s application fee and eliminated a “fast track” process to get applications approved, after reports that Royal Bank of Canada had replaced Canadian IT workers with temporary foreign workers.
In April, jobs minister Jason Kenney announced restaurants would no longer be able to use the program after media reports that a McDonald’s franchisee had hired temporary foreign workers over qualified Canadian applicants.
The USW called those changes “bandaid” solutions and said it wouldn’t fix the problem.
The temporary foreign worker program is meant to fill short-term labour shortages when qualified Canadians or permanent residences cannot be found to fill jobs. Over the past decade, there has been a sharp increase in the use of the program to fill low-skilled jobs in fast food restaurants, especially in Western Canada.
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