A Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee report on illegal and temporary foreign workers has recently been tabled in the House of Commons, offering dozens of recommendations to improve Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker Program.
Over the past few years, the Government of Canada has been revising the program to make it easier for labour-starved Canadian industries to have access to the skilled foreign workers they have needed.
Now, with significantly increasing numbers of Temporary Foreign Workers in Canada, there is a growing need to better regulate recruiters and employers to ensure that workers' rights are upheld.
The recommendations include getting rid of a current rule that ties work permits to a specific employer along with improved measures to protect workers from unscrupulous recruitment agencies and bosses.
"I rather suspect that a goodly number of their recommendations will find their way into law when the government implements changes to the program," stated a spokesperson for Canada's Immigration Minister, Jason Kenney. "The Minister is currently consulting with cultural communities and employers on how to improve the temporary foreign worker program as well as the live-in caregiver program to better protect foreign workers, with a view to implementing tougher regulations in the upcoming months."
Citizenship and Immigration Canada is currently in the midst of an awareness campaign to help protect foreign workers against unethical recruiters and immigration consultants.
