Transitional measures enacted to help certain temporary foreign workers stay in the country are causing a stir, but will likely end up having a very limited impact.
The new measures are aimed at temporary foreign workers in the process of seeking permanent residency in Canada, but whose applications likely won’t be processed before an April 1 deadline that arose out of last year’s changes to the program.
Approximately 10,000 workers are caught up in the two-year backlog of the Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program, waiting to see if they can stay in Canada. If their work permits expire before their application is accepted, they will be forced to leave the country. The temporary measures are aimed at helping those whose permits are set to expire in 2015, by giving them a one-time, yearlong permit.
A letter outlining the changes signed by the former Minister of Employment and Social Development Jason Kenney states that the changes “should provide some relief to employers that have TFW’s that have already applied for immigration and are in the queue waiting for their applications to be assessed.”
But temporary foreign worker advocates aren’t impressed.
Clarizze Truscott is the spokesperson for the Temporary Foreign Worker Support Coalition, based out of Alberta. The coalition is a group of union representatives, temporary foreign worker advocates and community members, formed to “bring out the voice of temporary foreign workers.”
Truscott said that the new measures illuminate the government’s priorities when dealing with temporary foreign workers, because they are geared toward alleviating the strain on Alberta’s businesses more than helping the workers themselves.
“These new measures, basically they were instituted without consulting temporary foreign workers,” she said. “Once again temporary foreign workers were left out of this decision making.”
She pointed out that at this time, about 10,000 temporary foreign workers are waiting to hear the status of their application to the Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program.
Alberta has a quota—it will only accept 5,500 applications in a year—and the fact that, in order to be eligible for the extension, a worker must have already been nominated under the program means many won’t see any benefit at all.
She said the real issue with the program right now is the backlog in the application list, and that to be truly fair the government should have allowed anyone on that list—not just those who have already been nominated—to qualify for the extension.
“It’s so typical. All this is is playing with people's lives. All this is is the government trying to appease the employers more than anything,” she said.
“This is really important: what will happen to the other temporary foreign workers who will not be given certificates?”
Neither the federal or provincial governments have officially commented on the new measures, and speaking with the Calgary Herald, Ogho Ikhalo, a spokesperson for the provincial ministry of Jobs, Skills, Training and Labour, confirmed that “several thousand” workers will see their permits expire on the April 1 deadline.
According to Ikhalo, approximately 1,000 temporary foreign workers could be eligible for the permit under the new measures, but that doesn’t necessarily mean 1,000 will be issued.
This does not sit well with Truscott.
“One thousand? Come on. It’s not going to make any difference,” she said.
She also pointed out that most of the workers approved under the Alberta Immigrant Nomination Program fall into the high-skilled, high-wage category, and that there are essentially no options for those working in low-skill, low-wage positions (such as employees in restaurants or the hospitality industry) to immigrate.
She said that the program is “incredibly flawed,” and that as long as it exists, foreigners coming to work in Canada will continue to be exploited and abused. Only once the government starts taking bigger steps to make immigration viable will that end.
“We’ve always maintained that in order to end any kind of exploitation, or end abuse of temporary foreign workers, you give them permanent status. If you’re good enough to work, you’re good enough to stay.”
Trevor Nichols
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