At the request of provinces or territories, rural employers will be allowed to keep their current number of low-wage temporary foreign workers and will temporarily increase the allowable share of low-wage workers to 15 per cent of their workforce in eligible regions from 10 per cent, Employment and Social Development Canada said in a news release.

The measures could begin as early as April, depending on requests from provinces or territories, and will stay in place until March 31, 2027.

Employers in health care, construction and food processing will remain subject to a 20 per cent cap on low-wage temporary foreign workers. Seasonal sectors, like seafood and tourism, will continue to be exempt from the cap.

The agriculture sector has its own dedicated stream to hire temporary foreign workers — the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP), but may also hire workers through the low-wage stream. Meat packers sometimes hire temporary workers.

Changes welcomed

The Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses welcomed the announcement.

“Any measure that prevents businesses from losing experienced, trained workers is a positive one,” said federation president Dan Kelly in a statement.

The federation is looking for clarity on whether the new measures will allow employers to extend the stay of existing TFWs already in Canada.

Earlier this week the federation put out a statement saying that 1.3 million work permits were set to expire by the end of 2026. Some estimates put more than 300,000 permits set to expire by the end of March, according to the statement.

“The economic fallout could be massive,” the federation said.

In recent years, the Liberal government has made moves to clamp down on use of temporary foreign workers. These included refusing to process applications for low-wage positions in areas with unemployment rates of six per cent or higher; decreasing the cap on the percentage of total workforce an employer can hire to 10 per cent from 20 per cent, with some exemptions; and reduction of maximum work permit duration to one year.

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From April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025, Employment and Social Development Canada inspected 1,435 employers for compliance, the agency said in an Oct. 6 news release. Ten per cent were found to be non-compliant.

In the same period, nearly $4.9 million in penalties were levied, up from about $2.1 million the previous year.

Agriculture, construction employers among those punished

Examples of non-compliance included an agricultural employer who was fined $212,000 and was banned from the TFW program for two years for “failing to provide proper working conditions” and not providing required documents to inspectors.

A construction employer was banned from the program for five years and fined $161,000 for failing to provide proper wages and working conditions, and for lack of compliance with federal and provincial labour laws.

A fish and seafood employer received a penalty of $1 million and a 10-year ban for failing to provide proper wages and working conditions, and for non-compliance with labour laws.

“To date, this is the biggest penalty ever issued by the Department,” the news release said.

“It is clear that improvements to the TFW Program are needed. This starts with a focused approach that targets specific strategic sectors and needs in specific regions,” it added.

TFW program to be trimmed

This echoed comments Prime Minister Mark Carney made to Liberal caucus members in September.

At the Sept. 10 event, Carney said his government aims to reduce the total number of temporary foreign workers and international students to less than five per cent of Canada’s population by the end of 2027, CBC reported.

In early September, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said the TFW program should be scrapped and a standalone agriculture program should be created. Poilievre cited Canadian unemployment as the main reason for the plan.

A bit more than 78,000 temporary foreign workers were employed in Canadian agricultural industries in 2024, Statistics Canada data shows.

The current Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) allows primary agriculture employers to bring in seasonal workers from Mexico and the Caribbean. However, farmers and food producers may also hire workers through the TFW Program.

Program under scrutiny

The program has also faced a barrage of scrutiny in recent years. A February report from Amnesty International called the system “inherently exploitative and discriminatory.” It called for measures like greater flexibility of work permits, removal of permanent residency criteria that it said discriminates against low-skill workers, and for improved worker access to healthcare and adequate housing.

The Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association pointed to “decades of continuous improvements” that allowed for more mobility options within SAWP. It said that program sets the gold standard for TFW programs.

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“[We think] Bill C-2 creates even greater volatility and makes them even more vulnerable,” said NFU policy analyst James Hannay in an interview.

The union, in an August op-ed, urged the federal government to withdraw the sweeping Bill C-2, also called the Strong Borders Act. It cited concerns for migrants and refugees along with the bill’s impact on privacy rights.

What does the bill cover?

The Liberal government introduced the bill in late May, and it passed its first reading before Parliament rose for the summer.

The bill, if passed, includes provisions purported to combat organized crime and fentanyl trafficking, expands the RCMP’s ability to share information with domestic and international partners, and introduces measures to combat money laundering.

It also would authorize Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to share more client information with federal and provincial partners. It would allow the government to cancel, suspend or change groups of immigration documents immediately, pause acceptance of new applications or pause or cancel applications already in the queue.

“These new authorities… could be used for matters of public health or national security,” a government backgrounder says.

Other amendments in the bill include intentions to set a one-year deadline to claim asylum.

Bill C-2 does not specifically mention temporary foreign workers.

Effects uncertain

If passed, the government would have the ability to cancel or modify work permits or impose new conditions on them.

“We don’t understand yet how this will impact temporary farm worker program. We would like some explanation on that,” Hannay said. “Theoretically, this could make migrant workers coming into Canada more vulnerable to changes in status.”

Many workers come to Canada with employer-specific work permits, Hannay said. This means they could lose their status if they leave their employer due to poor working conditions or treatment.

The NFU’s view is that the easiest way to guarantee workers’ rights is to give them a pathway to permanent residency status.

“Bill C-2 does the opposite of that,” Hannay said.

Temporary foreign workers and workers under the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program have some ability to move between employers, the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association noted in an August 2024 article.

For instance, vulnerable workers who are victims of abuse can apply for an open work permit.

Seasonal workers can also request to be transferred to a different approved employer by their country’s liaison office without having to apply for a new work permit, the association said. Federal rules also provide protections for workers who report poor working conditions.

Labour trafficking concerns

Groups that work with migrants and refugees have also pushed back against Bill C-2.

“Having temporary or precarious immigration status is by far the greatest risk factor to experiencing labour trafficking in Canada,” said Julia Drydyk, executive director of the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking, in a June article about the bill.

Labour trafficking is defined as a form of human trafficking that involves coercion, control or deception, the article said. “It most often affects migrants who are in Canada legally but have precarious immigration status — including many temporary foreign workers.”

For instance, the worker might arrive at the workplace and realize the promises the employer made aren’t being fulfilled, but they are kept there by threats of deportation, James McLean, the centre’s director of research and policy, in an interview.

“The majority of farmers treat workers fairly,” he said. “But there are systemic issues that create vulnerabilities… employer-specific work permits make it very difficult for workers to report abuse or to leave unsafe conditions, and that allows exploitation to take root.”

“One of the reasons that the centre has really pushed back against recent legislation is because we’re starting to see stigmatization of migrant workers,” said McLean. “The Canadian economy depends on migrant workers to function… we want to make sure that the focus remains on those who are exploiting these workers, and not on punishing or restricting these workers.”

To become law, Bill C-2 must be considered by a parliamentary committee, which may propose amendments, and pass its second and third readings. It would then be passed to the Senate, where it would go a similar process.

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Poilievre announced Wednesday morning in Mississauga the party’s plan to permanently end the program, which accounted for over 78,000 employees across the agriculture sector in 2024, according to Statistics Canada.

The current Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) allows primary agriculture employers to bring in seasonal workers from Mexico and the Caribbean. However, farmers and food producers may also hire workers through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

“The time has come for decisive action,” he said. “To stop the Liberals from using our immigration system to pad the pockets of corporate elites and other insiders at the expense of Canadian jobs.”

“Conservatives are calling on the Carney government to permanently scrap the temporary foreign worker program and stop issuing any new visas for any new temporary foreign workers coming into the country.”

He cited Canadian unemployment as the main reason for the plan, accusing Liberals of taking jobs away from Canadians.

According to a party press release, the Conservatives would establish “a separate, standalone program for legitimately difficult-to-fill agricultural labour.” The statement said there would be a transition period of at most five years while the program “winds down.”

Poilievre workers themselves are not the problem, but are being exploited by elites looking to reduce costs.

The announcement comes as the TFW program has received considerable scrutiny and backlash over the past several years, including from the previous Liberal government.

Last year, the then Trudeau Liberals took steps to restrict the number of foreign workers employed in Canada, though agricultural jobs were exempted.

Prime Minister Mark Carney responded to Poilievre’s comments Wednesday afternoon, saying the TFW program “has a role” and is part of what will be discussed at the current cabinet meeting.

“We have to keep this program, not eliminate this program,” Carney said in French. “As a whole, it’s clear that we can improve our overall immigration policies. We’re working on that, and we’re setting clear goals to adjust.”

He said for the business owners he speaks to across Canada, their second-largest concern after tariffs is access to TFWs.

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Canada’s temporary foreign worker (TFW) program is “inherently exploitative and discriminatory,” and violates Canada’s international obligations according to a report from Amnesty International released today.

The report, titled “Canada has Destroyed Me”: Labour Exploitation of Migrant Workers in Canada was based on interviews a human rights group conducted with 44 migrant workers from 14 countries in Ontario and Quebec. It claims some of their cases amounted to violations of domestic anti-slavery and anti-trafficking legislation.

Canada’s TFW system been under increased scrutiny recently with Immigration Minister Marc Miller calling the era of an “unlimited supply of cheap labour” over in a November speech. His comments followed several reforms to the program, including limitations to numbers in areas with low unemployment and stricter oversight in “high-risk areas.”

Amnesty’s report also concluded that Canada’s system constitutes racial discrimination, given the makeup of migrant workers primarily coming from Central America and the Caribbean, saying “the regulations, which are on their face race-neutral, have in fact, disproportionate impacts on racialized groups.”

Amnesty’s recommendations to the federal government include:

• Granting open work permits to TFW program participants and abolishing closed permits/visas to allow workers to “change employers and jobs freely.”
• Overhauling the program to address systemic discrimination.
• Removing eligibility criteria for permanent residency which discriminate against “low-skilled workers.”
• Working with provincial authorities to improve TFWs’ access to healthcare and adequate housing.
• Ensuring migrant workers have ways to voice complaints and report cases of human rights abuses.

This isn’t the first time the Temporary Foreign Worker program has been flagged for human rights concerns. In 2023, a United Nations special rapporteur called the program a “breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery.” A subsequent report called for reforms including an end to closed work permits, pathways to permanent residency, and addressing barriers to adequate healthcare and housing.

On Jan. 31, Shawn Brenn, Chair of the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Association (OFVGA) responded to Amnesty’s findings in a written statement sent to Farmtario.

“We understand and share the concern for the well-being of the workers,” Brenn wrote. “However, these reports, along with the proposed recommendation of permanent residency and open-work permits as a solution, are often presented in a way that overlooks or dismisses the various existing avenues available to workers who wish to leave an incompatible or hostile workplace.”

“The current mobility options within the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program are the result of decades of continuous improvements to the transfer process, developed in close collaboration with participating countries. This program sets the gold standard for TFW streams, and we take great pride in that.”

A Senate report in May called for an independent agency to coordinate TFW and migrant labour policy to address a chaotic system and mistreatment of workers.

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Employment and Social Development Canada handed out $2.1 million in financial penalties to employers of temporary foreign workers (TFWs) between April and September 2024. This was more than double the fines given in the same period of 2023, according to a federal news release.

Federal officials also banned 20 employers from the TFW program, a fivefold increase from the same period last year.

This includes an employer from the farming sector, who was fined $75,000 and banned for five years for failing to provide required documentation, being absent from a meeting scheduled with inspectors and “failing to demonstrate they were operating a legitimate business,” the news release said.

Between April 1 and September 30, federal officials conducted 649 employer compliance inspections. Eleven per cent were non-compliant.

The federal government has been cracking down on misuse of the temporary foreign worker system.

In March, it reduced the percentage of allowable temporary foreign workers in some sectors, including hospitality, food service and food manufacturing. In September, the cap was reduced to 10 per cent, but food processing was exempted.

Seasonal agricultural workers, who are hired under a different stream, were not affected.

In August, it introduced stricter oversight of Labour Market Impact Assessments, which are used by employers to demonstrate the need for foreign workers to fill job vacancies.

In September, the federal government said it would refuse to process assessments in census metropolitan areas where unemployment is over six per cent. It would also only approve workers under the low wage stream for one year.

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Among food manufacturers, job vacancies fell nearly 32 per cent in 2024, while the number of payroll employees fell almost five per cent, wrote FCC senior economist Amanda Norris in a Dec. 18 report. This led to a job vacancy rate of 2.6 per cent.

Despite less competition for workers, wages offered for food manufacturing jobs rose 9.2 per cent year over year.

Beverage manufacturers saw a drop in vacancies of about 21 per cent, while the number of payroll employees rebounded after two years of declines, Norris wrote. This led to an increased labour demand of nearly seven per cent. However, wages offered for these jobs fell 0.2 per cent year-over-year.

Labourers, process control operators and industrial butchers were the most common job vacancies, but the number of openings has reached or fallen below 2019 levels.

Norris said softening demand for workers doesn’t necessarily predict positive tidings. The sector is ending the year with flat sales, and wages are rising to catch up with inflation. FCC predicted stronger sales growth in 2025, but also rising wages.

“Coupled with the uncertainty around both domestic demand and exports, businesses may be more hesitant to expand their workforce,” Norris wrote. “Uncertain times have led to paused investment plans, which does not bode well for the sector’s productivity.”

The food and beverage sector may also face additional labour challenges, as the percentage of its workforce over the age of 55 reached 28 per cent this year.

The federal government has also clamped down on levels of temporary foreign worker employment. Though food and beverage manufacturers are exempt from current program tweaks, FCC said further changes can’t be ruled out.

“We’re expecting a tight labour supply to keep wage growth strong, resulting in tight margins for the food and beverage manufacturing industry in 2025,” Norris said.

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The human rights abuses and lack of access to citizenship pathways built into the TFWP have been noted by experts time and again, garnering considerable attention during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since 2000, there has been exponential growth of temporary permit holders in Canada driven by both employer demand and by policy. From 2000 to 2010, the TFWP overshadowed the permanent immigration system, as illustrated by a historical flurry of policy and program changes.

Glorified employment agency

Originating in Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) and not in Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), the TFWP has been used like a de facto migration program, which it was never intended to be.

That means the current state of affairs should be no surprise. The TFWP has steamrolled ahead like a glorified employment agency in response to the demands of employers as IRCC struggles to support the communities taking in these newcomers — or to develop policy infrastructure to address the many problems the program has created.

Prevailing concerns (including access to pathways, human rights and labour violations, barriers in accessing health care, legal support and other services) about the TFWP have been echoed in reports by the Office of the Auditor General of Canada in 2021 and 2023, and the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology in 2024.

Canada’s latest Immigration Levels Plan is the most recent example of ignoring historical and scholarly evidence. With a major goal to reduce the numbers of temporary migrants in Canada from 6.5 per cent to five per cent of the population, the plan claims that “more temporary residents will transition to permanent residents or leave Canada, compared to new ones arriving.”

Both scenarios seem unlikely. As one Statistics Canada analysis shows, low-wage temporary migrants represent a very small proportion of those who have transitioned from temporary to permanent status. Furthermore, it is well-established that when visas expire, people stay, in Canada and around the world.

Labour market needs

Ignoring reality doesn’t change that fact, and neither does labelling migrants undocumented or irregular. In Canada, the majority of people with undocumented/irregular status came to Canada through regular pathways with authorized temporary permits (including international student and work permits), but they overstayed.

They should be permitted to stay. Canada needs them. The labour market needs them.

It is estimated that roughly three million non-permanent residents are living in Canada in 2024, of which roughly half are authorized to work.

Canada’s available workforce doesn’t fully meet its needs, particularly in the agriculture, service and care sectors. Labour shortages in these vital sectors will only get worse because the incoming generation of workers can’t compensate for the upcoming wave of retirees.

People with work permits — whether in the country under the TFWP, the International Mobility Program or under the Post Graduate Work Permit Program — have been propping up critical sectors of the Canadian economy and society by filling labour and skills gaps. They also contribute to the social and cultural fabric of Canada.

So why are those with expiring work permits — estimated to be held by 1.2 million people, including roughly 200,000 international students — being forced to leave when their status expires in 2025?

And if they don’t leave, what happens next?

Integration at no cost to Ottawa

Some will access a permanent pathway — approximately 30 per cent — while some will leave and many will join the more than 500,000 people living in Canada without status.

Absurdly, these temporary migrants have already done the hard work of integration, without costing the federal government a dime. Many have effectively paid to integrate, as either international students or as workers — but both are ineligible for funded settlement support available to permanent immigrants and refugees.

Deportation orders and removals, on the other hand — the only way the federal government can ensure people actually leave — cost the system millions.

In the 2018–19 fiscal year alone, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) spent about $34 million on its removal program and only successfully removed 9,500 people, including 2,800 people refused entry at the border.

By that math, if the government aimed to deport 500,000 non-status immigrants, it would cost more than $1 billion.

What’s more, the recent changes will significantly increase the number of people in Canada without status, potentially ballooning the economic costs of removal orders and deportations. This will also come with a significant social cost as the number of people without status who are working and living in our communities climbs and a culture of fear, division and above all, precarity, is created.

It’s poor economics and poor governance to deport them, and it’s even worse to let them stay without status.

Non-status numbers will increase

Unless Canada wants to embark on large-scale regularization programs similar to those in Europe — broad-based efforts designed to provide access to status for those without it — pathways for permanent residency must be expanded for temporary migrants.

However, despite the government’s multi-year “Explore Ways of Regularizing Undocumented Workers” initiative, Immigration Minister Marc Miller recently made it clear that Canada will not pursue a broad regularization program for undocumented individuals — even though the majority have simply overstayed following expired work permits or student visas.

But the changes outlined in the 2025 Immigration Plan will undoubtedly increase the numbers of non-status people in Canada.

Forcing 200,000 international students to leave when their permits expire; curtailing spousal work permits; limiting low-wage work permits (except for primary agriculture) to one year; and charging migrants high fees to renew their work permits annually are just a few of the most recent moves to push migrants into irregularity and set Canada up for continued failure.

Without accessible direct pathways to permanent residency — or better yet, permanent status on arrival — work-permit holders in Canada have been relegated to a permanent temporary status at best, and non-status at worst. Canada’s TFWP was seemingly designed to fail, and fail it will continue to do.

—Jenna L. Hennebry is a professor with the International Migration Research Centre at Wilfred Laurier University

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According to a report from Global News, Miller said employers may need to start offering higher wages to Canadian workers while speaking to the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade Wednesday.

The comments come following several recently-announced reforms to the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program by the federal government. Recent rules limit the number of TFWs employers may hire in areas with low unemployment and last week, a 20 per cent increase to hourly wage for TFWs came into effect.

Per the Global news report, Miller specifically pointed to agriculture as a low-wage sector in which “there are exploitative relationships that exist.”

More reductions and limits on the TFW program would likely mean more pressure on Canadian producers to hire local labour.

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Last week, Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced a plan to cut the number of temporary residents in Canada to curb population growth from 2025 to 2027.

“Canada’s temporary population will decrease over the next few years as significantly more temporary residents will transition to being permanent residents or leave Canada compared to new ones arriving,” the feds say.

“(This) is expected to result in a marginal population decline of 0.2 percent in both 2025 and 2026, before returning to a population growth of 0.8 percent in 2027.”

Some business groups are concerned about this policy and the availability of workers, but it isn’t a threat for agri-food processors, said Lauren Martin, senior director of government relations and policy with the meat council.

“Peeling back the layers… there were no new measures announced,” she said. “There wasn’t anything new for agri-food.”

In March, the federal government adjusted the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, reducing the maximum number of TFWs that a business could employ from 30 to 20 per cent of their staff.

In August, the feds went a step further, capping the number of foreign workers at 10 per cent.

Health care, construction and the agri-food industry were exempt from the August reduction to 10 per cent.

The policy change in March was disruptive for meat packers across Canada, which rely heavily on foreign workers, Martin said.

The meat industry has since adjusted to the TFW cap.

“Where we were in the spring is not where we are today…. I think there is less panic, now.”

It’s also encouraging that the tone of conversations has shifted in Ottawa, Martin said.

Federal ministers and bureaucrats seem to understand that agriculture and agri-food needs a consistent supply of foreign workers.

“I think I’ve received enough of an assurance, from different departments, that agri-food is going to be a bit of a (protected) workforce,” Martin said.

The Canadian Federation of Agriculture is still reviewing the recent change in immigration policy, but it appears the government comprehends that many farms cannot survive without foreign workers.

Fruit and vegetable growers, pork producers, beekeepers and other producers need foreign labour.

“What’s most important is that government (has) recognized the importance of the TFW program … to agriculture, and how we rely on that program,” said Keith Currie, CFA president and a farmer from Collingwood, Ont.

“They’ve left us alone, basically. They made an exemption for us.”

Despite the use of foreign labour, it’s possible that 30,000 positions remain vacant on Canadian farms, Currie said.

The Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council has estimated that on-farm agriculture businesses lost $3.5 billion in sales in 2022 because they didn’t have the necessary workforce.

“If we didn’t not have the 70,000 seasonal ag workers that are coming in … what would that look like for a production standpoint?” Currie said. “Particularly in the (horticultural) industry, where the majority of (foreign) workers go, it would be devastating.”

In its Oct. 24 announcement, the immigration department said it wants more temporary residents — workers and students — to become permanent residents of Canada.

That policy could be helpful for agri-food processors such as meat packers, which employ workers throughout the year.

Companies use the TFW program to attract workers to Canada with the goal of keeping those employees in the country for the long haul.

“If they want more permanent residents that are going to fill the jobs that food and beverage manufacturing industry has, then yes, that’s a good thing,” said Martin, who added that immigration policy is extremely complicated.

The government has decided to limit the number of temporary residents in Canada — workers and students — which will constrain population growth.

It’s unclear what this will mean for the economy, including agriculture and food.

“Canada has a demographic problem. We do not have the folks we need to replace (the people) who are retiring,” Martin said.

“If you’re reducing immigration numbers … what are you going to do to productivity and output?”

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