QUESTION PERIOD — Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
Temporary Foreign Workers
April 18, 2024
My question is for the Government Representative in the Senate. Senator Gold, recently, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship announced changes to the levels of temporary residents in Canada, including temporary foreign workers. Specifically, this means decreasing the number of temporary foreign workers that employers in certain sectors are allowed to hire, cutting it down from 30% to 20% of their workforce. With over 600,000 unfilled job vacancies and nearly 12,000 in New Brunswick alone — along with tens of thousands of looming retirements — how does the government think that this reduction will address the persistent labour challenges experienced in certain sectors of our economy?
Thank you for your question. It is an important one and — I think we would all acknowledge — a complicated policy issue. It is incontrovertible that our economy relies upon temporary workers to fill much-needed jobs and to help sustain our economy. It is also the case that provinces, territories and municipalities have been challenged at times in terms of making sure that proper resources, social supports and services are there for those workers who arrive. It is a deplorable fact that in a country such as ours, some workers have been subjected to living and working conditions that are simply shameful.
In light of these factors and other challenges to the proper integration of and support for immigrants, the government has made its calculation in consultation with provinces and territories that this is the right and prudent thing to do at this time.
I appreciate the government’s intentions of easing the burden on Canada’s social services. I believe a better strategy might be to focus on those services and not punish businesses who are struggling with their labour requirements.
Also, due to the many unique characteristics of New Brunswick, such as the seasonal nature of jobs, our labour needs differ drastically from other parts of the country. Would the government agree that it makes sense to take provincial and regional differences into consideration instead of applying an Ottawa-centric, pan-Canadian approach?
Thank you. Without denying at all the specificity and uniqueness of the situation in your province, that is also true in many provinces. Certainly, it is true in my own. I’m not in a position to comment on whether or not this is an Ottawa-centric, pan-Canadian approach. My understanding is that the minister and the government work with their counterparts to be attentive, at least, to regional needs and differences.
