Canada’s international student program and temporary foreign worker program have suffered abuses, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Thursday.
Freeland’s comments came just days after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the federal government is taking steps to restrict the number of low-wage temporary foreign workers in Canada, with the exception of some sectors.
The federal government also announced earlier this year a limit on the number of international students who can come to Canada.
“We see them (international students and foreign workers) as new Canadians who have a lot to offer and a lot to contribute. That is a very good thing about Canada. That said, there have been some abuses in the system,” Freeland said Thursday.
Freeland blamed errant institutions.
“One thing I think we all recognize is that when it comes to international students, we have seen that some institutions do not invite them to come and give them a good education, but rather they abuse them. And that is not right,” he said.
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Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre faced questions from reporters on Thursday about how he would approach immigration if elected, saying “we need to have lower population growth.”
“There’s no question about it,” he said. “We need to have a growth rate that is below the growth in housing, health care and employment.”
The international student cap is expected to result in approximately 364,000 study permits approved this year, a 35 percent decrease from 2023.
And while the temporary foreign worker program has grown dramatically in recent years, it has been criticized for suppressing domestic wages and leaving workers vulnerable to abuse.
According to data from Employment and Social Development Canada, the number of temporary jobs for foreign workers has more than doubled since 2016. That year, the federal Liberals were first elected in 2015.
Freeland said the program’s growth “made sense” during the “extraordinary” circumstances created by the COVID-19 pandemic. She added that the federal government decided to implement restrictions because the situation has changed.
“It makes a lot of sense to say: if unemployment is six per cent or more, we are not going to process new applications for temporary foreign workers. There are Canadians in your city who need a job, find those Canadians and offer them those jobs,” he said.
Immigrant rights groups, however, have said Ottawa’s new policy is making immigrants into scapegoats for its mismanagement of the Canadian economy.
“High unemployment, low wages and unaffordable housing are not caused by immigrants and migrants, but by employer exploitation and policy failures. Migrants build communities and deserve equal rights and respect, not scapegoating,” said Syed Hussan, executive director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change.
Starting September 26, the government will reject applications from low-wage temporary foreign workers in regions with an unemployment rate of six percent or more.
For employers, there will be a 10 percent limit on employees coming from the low-wage stream of the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program and a reduction in the maximum duration of employment from two years to one. According to Employment and Social Development Canada.
This comes after Quebec last week announced its own limits on low-wage temporary foreign workers: a six-month freeze in Montreal that will take effect next month.
He TFW Program Allows non-Canadians to work in the country on a temporary basis.
— with files from Saba Aziz of Global, The Canadian Press and Reuters.
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