By now, most individuals are absolutely conscious of the truth that the Short-term International Employee Program is as soon as once more going through a complete new assessment by Minister Mihychuk and the Liberal authorities. Some say that Minister Mihychuk is able to scrap the entire thing. Others say the Minister may very well use what’s discovered from these consultations to reshape the TFWP in a optimistic means.
No matter which hearsay is true, one factor is for certain…..Overhaul deja vu is on its means.
Not surprisingly, I’m but to obtain an invite to look earlier than the HUMA Standing Committee charged with the accountability of conducting the TFWP assessment.
I’m not an business chief. I’m not the top of a big company. I’m not somebody of affect the federal government would actually even take note of.
Nonetheless, like different Canadian immigration legal professionals who’ve earned a residing offering recommendation to firms and international employees whose companies and lives depended upon this system, I determine I’d simply have one thing to supply.
So what higher method to get my message heard than to write down a weblog.
The weblog itself sort of acquired away from me a little bit. Due to this, I’ve chosen to interrupt it down right into a sequence of blogs that I hope will add a distinct perspective to the entire dialogue.
I’m not precisely positive how this sequence of blogs will unfold. Nonetheless, I would like everybody to know that the time I took in drafting this was designed purely for the needs of stimulating dialogue and hopefully gaining the ear of the HUMA Standing Committee in addition to Minister Mihychuk and Minister McCallum who’re each inextricably intertwined with the TFWP and the answer going ahead.
So one of the best factor on the earth individuals can do once they learn this weblog is to go away a remark under and inform everybody what they suppose.
Specific Entry is the Answer
No matter what Minister Mihychuk in the end chooses to do with the TFWP, I believe the way forward for Canada’s labour scarcity challenges rests not within the TFWP, however truly within the Specific Entry regime.
Regardless of the downturn within the economic system in Canada, Canadian employers proceed to expertise expert and unskilled labour shortages in lots of industries and areas. Employers have relied closely on the Short-term International Employee Program (TFWP) to supply international employees when native Canadians and everlasting residents are unwilling, or unavailable to fill these positions.
Presently, employers experiencing labour shortages first flip to the TFWP, then the Provincial Nominee Packages and lastly the Specific Entry regime. IRCC Minister John McCallum has indicated that he want to see the reverse of this with Specific Entry as the primary alternative for employers and the TFWP being the choice of final resort.
As an immigration lawyer who has spent his whole profession working with Canadian employers to entry the TFWP to supply international employees (in any respect wage ranges), I’ve to confess that I truly agree with our Liberal Minister. Bearing in mind the collective wants of all stakeholders, Specific Entry is by far a greater resolution than the TFWP.
Now let me make clear just a few issues earlier than I trigger any concern amongst my fellow Board Members on the Conservative EDA in Lethbridge, Alberta…..I’m positively not buying and selling in my blue shirt for a purple one. I need to reassure you and our esteemed MP Rachael More durable that I’m nonetheless batting for the Proper crew (pun meant).
So with out losing any extra time with my windup, right here is the pitch…
Historical past of the Short-term International Employee Program
However earlier than I dive proper into my rational, let me begin with a little bit historical past lesson on the TFWP to offer some context for these of you coming late to the sport.
Over the previous ten years, statistics have proven that using the TFWP has mirrored the Province of Alberta’s increase and bust cycle. Within the early to mid 2000s, the TFWP was heralded because the saviour to Alberta and the remainder of the nation’s essential labour scarcity wants. With unemployment charges remaining under 4% from 2005 to 2008 (3% in October 2006), my then 11 12 months previous daughter may have utilized for a Labour Market Opinion (now rebranded as a Labour Market Affect Evaluation) and obtained an approval.
The function of Service Canada was that of a facilitator throughout the increase and positively not the gatekeeper we all know them to be right this moment. Employers struggling to finish the LMO software types in Alberta may contact Service Canada and the officers would go as far as to nearly fill out the types for the employers. They’d clarify precisely what the employer wanted to do to acquire an approval and if the employer nonetheless acquired it mistaken, would give them likelihood after likelihood till they lastly acquired it proper. In spite of everything, it was frequent data that labour shortages existed throughout all industries.
It didn’t take lengthy for industries like meals service and hospitality to leap on board. Actually, they did greater than leap on board – they constructed a whole fleet of ships to take full benefit of the TFWP. Franchises began remodeling their human useful resource mannequin to benefit from the TFWP.
It wasn’t lengthy earlier than the larger portion of our quick meals eating places and lodge chains have been staffed nearly solely with international employees…..and who may blame them? As a enterprise proprietor, what state of affairs would you fairly have….10 informal Canadian staff that will or could not present up for his or her shifts every day, or 3 full time international employees that you might rely on to work their tails off every day and regarded it a privilege to actually have a job.
Sadly, in an effort to make sure that the international employees weren’t taking away jobs from Canadians, excessive restrictions have been positioned on the phrases of employment making a horrible energy imbalance for the employer. Now I perceive why ESDC did what it did. Nonetheless, the ability imbalance that historically exists between any employer and its staff is magnified 100 fold inside the low-skill (low wage) program of the TFWP.
NOTE: For the needs of this weblog, I intend to make use of the time period “low-skill” as a substitute of “low wage” as a result of it extra correctly correlates with IRCCs constant reference to “expert employees” inside the Immigration and Refugee Safety Act and its regs.
Exploitation and abuse of low ability international employees
International employees working in low ability (low wage) positions are notably weak to exploitation and abuse. Let me clarify why.
International employees working in Canada on an LMO/LMIA primarily based work allow are usually licensed to work for just one employer, at a selected location, in a selected place, for a set wage. Any variation to those circumstances could be thought-about unauthorized work for the international employee and set off potential take away from Canada. Employers might be discovered non-compliant and topic to sanction.
Within the top of the increase, the federal government was extra centered on assembly the numerous labour calls for of Canadian employers versus checking as much as see if employers have been truly following the principles and treating their international employees pretty.
As a result of international employees have been usually not conscious of the seriousness of the employment circumstances imposed by the federal government, some nasty employers took full benefit of them.
Some traditional examples of exploitation included requiring the employees to work 18 hour days, 7 days per week, with no extra time. In some circumstances actually nasty employers required their low ability international employees to pay again, in money, the distinction between what the LMIA required the employer to pay and what the employer actually needed to pay the international employee. By requiring “money again”, the employer was in a position to preserve payroll data that complied with the phrases of the LMIA in case they have been ever audited throughout an Employer Compliance Assessment (ECR).
….sure this did occur….and much too steadily.
Now don’t get me mistaken. I’m positively not saying that each one employers deal with their international employees like indentured servants. They completely don’t….I and lots of of my colleagues act for and work as in-house counsel for a lot of great employers that deal with their international employees like household and do all they will to assist them of their journey to turn into everlasting residents of Canada.
Vital non-compliance does happens inside the low ability program
From my expertise, the proportion of non-compliant employers inside the ranks of the low ability program was, and nonetheless is, vital.
Some could say….you possibly can’ t know that for positive. This can be true. Nonetheless, I consider that the pattern dimension of interactions I’ve had with employers and international employees inside the TFWP offers me simply as a lot of a platform to make these statements as those that disagree with me.
As an immigration lawyer, anybody who speaks with me advantages from solicitor shopper privilege. Due to that, international employees are far more prepared to inform me when the principles are being damaged as a result of they know I can’t share this data with anybody else.
I’ve had a gradual stream of low ability international employees coming to my workplace for help, however in nearly each single case, they refused to go to the authorities in regards to the abuse they have been struggling. Some days I want I wasn’t a lawyer topic to “solicitor shopper privilege” as a result of then I may have taken motion independently by go away nameless little messages on the On-line Immigration Fraud Reporting Device.
So with excessive charges of non-compliance inside the low ability ranks of the TFWP, coupled with the equally acknowledged want for international labour in varied industries, I’m going to share with you in Half 2 of my weblog precisely why I really feel Specific Entry is the answer.
Half 2 can be launched tomorrow…..