The feds have added some serious teeth to their temporary foreign labour rules.
Driving the news: Ottawa handed New Brunswick’s Bolero Shellfish Processing a record-high $1 million fine and a 10-year ban from the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program for allegedly failing to provide workers with proper wages and working conditions. Bolero says it will fight the penalty in court.
Catch-up: The $1 million fine is part of a wider crackdown on abuse of the program. In the last fiscal year, the feds conducted 1,435 investigations, handing out $4.8 million in fines — more than double the year before — and barring 36 employers from using the TFW program.
- The feds have also tightened the program's rules, making it harder to get work permits and banning employers from hiring temporary foreign workers in any metropolitan area where unemployment is above 6%.
Why it matters: The crackdown seems to be working. After Ottawa changed the rules last fall, annual applications under the TFW program dropped by half, including a 70% decline in the low-wage stream.
- Meanwhile, about 235,000 fewer temporary workers arrived in Canada between January and July compared with the same period in 2024.
Big picture: Enforcing the rules of the TFW program will go a long way towards Ottawa’s short-term goal of cutting the number of temporary residents in Canada from 7% currently to 5% of the population by 2027.—LA