New temporary foreign worker rules draw mixed reaction in Alberta

New restrictions to Canada's temporary foreign worker program have been met with a mixed reaction in Calgary, one of the cities affected by the change.

The federal government announced on Monday that employers in Canadian regions with an unemployment rate of six per cent or higher will not be able to hire low-wage temporary foreign workers, with limited exceptions for "food-security sectors" like agriculture, food and fish processing, as well as industries with acute staffing shortages like construction and health care.

Ottawa further announced that low-wage foreign workers will be limited to one-year contracts instead of two, and that employers will no longer be allowed to hire more than 10 per cent of their total workforce through the program.

Requests for assistance from migrant workers have been part of an uptick in demand that Immigrant Services Calgary has seen in the past year. The organization works with newcomers in Canada to help connect them with settlement services assisting with housing, employment and language support.

Alka Merlin, a spokesperson with the organization, said a common issue people have is difficulty finding housing, adding that bringing in temporary foreign workers without ensuring there's infrastructure in place to support them is a problem for the country.

"Ensuring that the folks already in the country can access meaningful employment, have safe housing and can meaningfully contribute to the socioeconomic landscape of the city and the province and the country should be the No. 1 priority for the government," Merlin said.

Merlin said that while the country needs temporary foreign workers to fill gaps in industries like agriculture and construction, the changes could help alleviate some of the housing issues that newcomers face, and that the jobs usually filled by the program could be taken by other newcomers already in Canada.

The Alberta government also welcomed Ottawa's decision, arguing that it opens the door for more young people to take on entry-level work. This is especially significant, the province argues, because of Alberta's high youth unemployment rate of 14.3 per cent.

But reaction from the hospitality industry has been more critical. Alberta Hospitality Association executive director Mona Pinder said rural communities and tourist towns, with smaller employee pools to draw from, will feel the biggest impact.

"This is not a restaurant owner's first choice for hiring workers. It's an expensive process and a long process to get temporary foreign workers," Pinder said. "It's really been used to fill those gaps where we can't fill it with Canadian workers."

Pinder, who argued the decision felt too reactive to the United Nations' recent report detailing mistreatment in Canada's TFW program, added that the hospitality sector is still feeling the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, after many workers left the industry when they saw it as an unreliable job. 

Calgary-based immigration lawyer Jatin Shory argued the move was a long time coming, and is designed to offset the exploitation that many temporary foreign workers face, which is taking a larger spotlight as more foreign workers come to Canada.

"Low-wage industries are probably the most targeted when it comes to workplace abuse and this type of exploitation. Immigration fraud often runs rampant in environments where people may be less educated, they may not have the capabilities to even understand what kind of world they're entering into," Shory said.

Federal Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault told CBC Radio's the Calgary Eyeopener on Tuesday that business models which rely on temporary foreign workers will need to adjust, whether it's through raising wages or increasing automation.