Temporary foreign workers may get more flexibility to move jobs as Ottawa eyes changes to program

The federal government is exploring changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program that would give workers more freedom to move jobs within their industry, rather than have their permits tied to a single employer.

Internal documents from Employment and Social Development Canada – the ministry in charge of the program – detail proposals to introduce a new sector-specific permit for workers in the agricultural and fish processing industries.

The work permit, issued for two years, would allow workers to move between employers in the same sector as long as they have a new job offer from an employer. Currently, if workers lose their jobs, they also lose their permits.

The ESDC documents consist of six proposals to change aspects of the TFW program, including guidelines related to housing, wages, access to health care and transportation for workers. They were based on feedback from employer associations and labour groups and written over the past year.

The documents were provided to The Globe and Mail from Migrant Rights Network, a national advocacy organization that has long campaigned to abolish the closed work permit system and grant temporary foreign workers a direct path to permanent residency. The organization obtained the documents as part of the government’s consultation process.

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On Wednesday, the group released a report criticizing the new federal proposals, characterizing the sector-specific work permits as a cosmetic change that would maintain employer control while creating an illusion of freedom and mobility for workers. The report says this is because employers would still have the ability to blacklist workers who leave their jobs.

The report adds that people granted open work permits through a special federal program for temporary workers who have suffered employer abuse (the Open Work Permit for Vulnerable Workers Program) struggled to find jobs in the same sector because they were typecast by employers as “difficult.”

ESDC ​spokesperson Mila Roy said in a statement that the department had engaged in a consultation process with stakeholders through 2024 and this year on changes to the program, specifically the introduction of a new immigration stream called the Agriculture and Fish Processing Stream and stream-specific work permits. The consultation process recently concluded, and ESDC and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada are currently reviewing input from stakeholders, Ms. Roy said.

Ms. Roy did not say when ESDC might make a decision.

“I think these changes are likely to go through. But they are incremental in nature, and essentially a rebranding exercise of the TFW program,” said Syed Hussan, executive director for Migrant Rights Network.

The TFW program is a key immigration stream in Canada that allows employers to hire mostly low-wage foreign workers on a temporary basis in sectors where the government determines there is a shortage of domestic labour. Employers need to complete a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) in order to be approved to hire temporary foreign workers. During the pandemic, the government broadened access to the program, resulting in a soaring number of TFW work permits issued between 2022 and 2024. Ottawa has since tightened eligibility criteria for the program in line with a policy goal of reducing the overall number of temporary residents in the country.

For years, the program has been dogged by allegations of worker abuse, prompting unions, labour advocates and international human-rights organizations to call for changes. In particular, the closed-work-permit aspect of the program (which ties a worker’s ability to work in Canada to a single employer) has been heavily criticized for increasing workers’ dependence on their employers, and preventing them from moving jobs easily in cases of exploitation.

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In November, 2024, a parliamentary committee on citizenship and immigration recommended that Ottawa get rid of the closed-work-permit system entirely, and introduce regional or sector-specific work permits that would define sectors broadly, and provide workers with access to a wide range of employers.

The proposed changes from ESDC appear to build on recommendations from the parliamentary committee and a 2023 report from the United Nations, which branded the TFW program as a “breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery.”

Beyond the stream-specific work permit, ESDC is proposing a redesigned LMIA process, in which employers obtain a Temporary Foreign Worker Employer Authorization (TFWEA) that they apply for every two years. A TFWEA, according to ESDC documents, will allow an employer to be approved to hire numerous foreign workers every two years, instead of the current system of applying for an LMIA approval each time employers need to fill a position with a foreign worker. “The TFWEA would be refillable, meaning that employers could re-fill a position that a TFW left with a qualified TFW who has a valid stream-specific work permit,” the document states.

The government is touting the changes as measures that will benefit both workers and employers. The latter group, according to ESDC, would have more flexibility to replace workers. Meanwhile, those who find themselves out of work would be able to start a job more quickly with a new employer.

In its report “Controls Not Protection: New Federal Proposals Set to Worsen Migrant Worker Crisis,” Migrant Rights Network found that 90 per cent of more than 500 migrant workers surveyed this spring did not want work permits tied to a single employer.

The Seasonal Agricultural Worker stream of the TFW program theoretically allows workers to transfer to other farms on the same work permit if they get approval from their present employer. But Mr. Hussan at Migrant Rights Network said that in reality this can be hard to achieve because it requires the worker to “out” themselves to their employer about why they are looking for a new job.

Jason, a Jamaican farm worker in Ontario, said that he feels beholden to his employer because of the current system, even as his working conditions worsen. “The employers know each other. If I complain about one farm, I will not get a good reference to be able to be hired at another farm,” he said. Jason has been working as a seasonal agricultural worker in the province since 2019. The Globe is not identifying Jason by his last name for fear of employer repercussions of speaking out about his working conditions.

ESDC is also proposing that employers in the agricultural sector be granted LMIAs on the condition that they provide housing for workers that meets 12 enhanced safety standards, including adequate ventilation in houses to guard against heat waves. But the proposal also includes an increase in the housing deduction from workers’ wages, which is currently at $129.90 a month, to a minimum of $179.05 monthly.

ESDC did not respond to queries on whether this change will take place.