Improvised Temporary Foreign Worker Program Measures In Canada

08 Aug 2013

New measures have emerged to improve the ‘Temporary Foreign Worker Program’ from the Federal Government of Canada. According to the new norms, the employers need to advertise open positions for a minimum of four weeks instead of two before they can apply to hire foreign workers. The employers also need to answer a series of questions pertaining to the impacts on the Canadian labor market, and achieve a positive labor market opinion, presenting the absence of Canadian workers for the job. Jason Kennedy, Employment and Social Development Minister said that the Canadian Government’s first priority remains economic growth, long-term prosperity and jobs, and these additional norms help ensure that the citizens are the first in line for available jobs. In addition to the increased length of time for posting a job, there is an expand on the breadth of postings too, insisting that employers use at least two more recruitment methods apart from a government job banks, with one of two being national in scope if hiring for a high-skilled position. For employers searching for low-skill job workers like food service industry, have to show that they tried to hire under-represented Canadian residents like youth and people with disabilities.

The labor market opinion application has new questions that particularly ask if the hiring of temporary foreign workers will result in job losses to Canadians ‘now or in the foreseeable future’, due to layoffs, outsourcing or off shoring. It also asks about contractual arrangements that may facilitate off shoring or outsourcing, the impact on the Canadian employees due to the foreign workers and the company's effort to hire and train Canadians and Permanent Residents in the previous two years. This makes the prospect of getting a Canadian Work Visa a little difficult. These new measures along with processing fee of $275 per each labor and new language restrictions took effect on July 31. Over the last 7 years, the number of temporary foreign workers has increased to a large extent, reaching 340,000 as of December 2012.

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