Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program: A Closer Look

A Tim Hortons employee hands out coffee from a drive-through window to a customer in Mississauga, Ont., on March 17, 2020. The Canadian Press/Nathan Denette

Explainer

Canada’s temporary foreign worker program (TFWP) has brought in hundreds of thousands of workers since starting in the early 1970s to fill short-term vacancies in agriculture, service, construction, health care, and other core industries.

The program has grown massively since it began, particularly in recent years, with the number of temporary workers (TFWs) rising from 356,000 in 2011 to 845,000 in 2021, according to Statistics Canada.

Recent political discourse and policy changes have cast a spotlight on the program and its impact on the Canadian workforce and economy.

Liberal Government Changes, Political Opposition to TFWP

The TFWP has faced pushback in recent years, with the Liberal government announcing in March 2024 that the number of temporary residents would be reduced from 6.5 percent of Canada’s population to 5 percent in the next three years, including TFWs and international students. Ottawa also said in August 2024 that no more than 10 percent of an employer’s total workforce can be TFWs.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has also committed to this goal, saying in the throne speech this year that Ottawa will cap the number of TFWs and international students to less than 5 percent of the country’s population by 2027 to reduce strains on housing, infrastructure, and social services.

Meanwhile, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on Sept. 3 called for the TFWP to be permanently ended, a move that was joined the following day by B.C. NDP Premier David Eby.

What Is the TFWP and Why Is It Controversial?

The TFWP was formulated to meet the needs of seasonal and short-term vacancies that cannot be filled by Canadians or permanent residents alone. The program requires employers to fill out a Labour Market Impact Assessment(LMIA), proving that hiring a foreign worker won’t hurt the local economy.

Fast food chains are a common example of corporations that use TFWs in smaller communities where they say there are insufficient Canadian workers to meet their staffing needs.

The program has become controversial because of accusations that it leads to worker exploitation and crowds Canadians out of the workforce, especially as the youth unemployment rate for Canadians has been rising. The unemployment rate for the 15-to-24 age bracket was 14.6 percent in July, up from 10.9 percent in January of last year. Another point of controversy came during the COVID pandemic, when requirements that all TFWs entering Canada be vaccinated were waived for the agriculture and food-processing sectors.

The justification for hiring foreign workers can be especially controversial in urban areas where unemployment rates are elevated, and the easy access to local workers in these areas calls into question the necessity of hiring foreign labour.

Claims of exploitation arise since TFWs are generally issued employer-specific closed work permits that only allow them to work for one employer, limiting their ability to seek better work or address concerns in their employment. The U.N. issued a report in 2024 calling the TFWP “a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery.” In particular, the report called out wage theft, limited breaks, and various forms of abuse it alleged were being perpetrated against TFWs who are unable to leave their job without breaking their work permit.

From 1970s Founding to Present Day

The hiring of foreign workers in Canada dates back to 1966, when a seasonal agricultural worker program was established. The TFWP was then put in place in 1973 to allow employers to hire specific, highly skilled foreign nationals, such as academics, business executives, and engineers, on a temporary basis when qualified Canadian workers weren’t available. A program focusing on hiring live-in caregiver was introduced in 1992. The program’s focus then expanded further in 2022 to include low-skill occupations in areas such as hospitality, food service, and retail.

With the 2008 financial crisis, the TFWP came under the spotlight and was subsequently altered in 2012–13 by then-Employment Minister Jason Kenney to restrict the low-skilled TFWP stream. Those reforms, such as conducting on-site inspections to ensure employers were meeting program requirement and removing the existing wage flexibility to require employers to pay TFWs at the prevailing wage, resulted in an immediate 80 percent decline in intake, he said. In 2014, Kenney further overhauled the system by barring the hiring of low-wage TFWs in regions where unemployment exceeded 6 percent, introducing a new labour market verification process—the LMIA—with a shortened period of validity, increasing application fees from $275 to $1,000 per TFW position requested, and raising fines on violators of the program, among other changes.

Subsequently, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government lengthened the validity of LMIAs from nine to 18 months, allowed up to 20 percent of employees at a business to be TFWs, gave a longer work term to TFWs hired in the high-wage and global talent streams, and lifted the cap on workers in seasonal jobs like seafood processing, construction, health care, and fishing.

The Trudeau government scaled back some of these changes in 2024, reducing the allowable amount of TFWs in a business to 10 percent and shortening permits to one year in length. However, exceptions were kept for a number of the industries listed above.

The TFWP has significantly expanded since its inception, from a tightly focused program to a broad approach for filling positions in a variety of fields.

Overseas Recruitment and Using Pre-Approved LMIA Templates

Some employers participate in overseas job fairs to expedite the hiring process, recruiting workers directly from countries like the Philippines and India. These employers often use pre-approved LMIA templates to streamline the application process and reduce wait times for foreign workers.

Large corporations like Tim Hortons often collaborate with immigration services to streamline the hiring process and quickly fill labour shortages they identify in remote areas.

The TWFP helps companies ensure they are operating at full capacity but has also been criticized for potentially squeezing out local workers and suppressing wages in the hotel and fast food industries.

The Recognized Employer Program and International Mobility Program

The Recognized Employer Pilot (REP), a two-phased, three-year project introduced in 2023, aims to streamline the LMIA process for employers with a history of following the rules and a consistent need for TFWs in certain in-demand fields. Under the pilot, employers can benefit from extended LMIA validity periods of up to 36 months and a simplified application when hiring additional workers.

While this pilot creates more efficient hiring for large chains, it has caused concern about potentially bypassing labour market assessments, especially in regions that have a proven, available local workforce.

Canada also has an International Mobility Program that allows employers to hire TFWs more quickly, without an LMIA, provided the employment falls under specific LMIA exemptions.

Push Back

Poilievre has been vocal about his opposition to the TFWP. He argues that the program displaces Canadian workers, particularly youth, and enables businesses to exploit low-wage labour from abroad. The Tory leader’s position has sparked debates about balancing immigration needs with domestic employment opportunities.

“It is a very exploitative system that has allowed corporate elites to profit off of driving wages down and driving jobs out, and we’re going to put an end to it,” Poilievre vowed at a Sept. 3 press conference.

Poilievre also pointed to the number of jobs the Canadian economy lost this summer—106,000—and compared it to the 105,000 TFWs approved by the government in 2025.

While committing to fully abolishing the TFWP, Poilievre has said he wants a separate standalone TFW program for agricultural workers to be phased in over a period of up to five years as the main TFWP is discontinued.

B.C. Premier Eby has also spoken out about the TFWP. “The temporary foreign worker program is not working. It should be cancelled or significantly reformed,” Eby said, adding that a particular problem is the sale of LMIAs in Surrey, B.C.

Eby said the TWFP is linked to high youth unemployment and pressure on housing and social services in B.C., adding that it is not currently in the best interest of Canadians.

Carney responded to Poilievre’s call to end the TFWP, saying the answer is not cancellation but rather reforms, to ensure the program serves Canada’s interests without overwhelming public systems.

“We can’t just erase this program, but we can definitely improve it,” he said.

Carney himself has expressed reservations about the TFWP in the past.

“One doesn’t want an over-reliance, certainly, on temporary foreign workers for lower-skilled jobs, which prevent the wage adjustment mechanism from ... making sure that Canadians are paid higher wages,” he said during comments as governor of the Bank of Canada in 2013.

31 Percent of TFWs Who Came After 2010 Became Permanent Residents by 2022

Several provinces have changed their provincial nominee programs to make it easier for TFWs to obtain permanent residency. For example, Saskatchewan and Manitoba have recognized food service roles, such as cooks and food counter attendants, as eligible occupations for permanent residency pathways.

This has led to a rise in the number of TFWs who obtain permanent residency, with about 31 percent who arrived since 2010 becoming permanent residents by 2022, according to Statistics Canada. An August 2025 report by the national statistical agency said 58 percent of TFWs who worked in the health care sector from 2000 to 2022 had obtained permanent residency by 2023.

Critics and Proponents Spar

Critics such as Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner contend that the TFWP pushes Canadians out of entry-level positions and exploits foreign workers, writing in a Sept. 5 post on X that “Canadian jobs should go to Canadian workers.” She says there aren’t enough Canadian workers to do the jobs in certain locations and that, apart from agriculture, she believes the program is harmful to Canadians.

Meanwhile, proponents such as the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) say the program is crucial for keeping positions filled and strengthening Canada’s economy, especially in remote and rural areas of the country, with CFIB President Dan Kelly saying that the plan to scrap the program “makes no sense at all.”

“There are dozens of legitimate reasons why small businesses use the program to fill persistent labour market gaps. Zero employers of entry level workers use it because it is ‘cheaper labour.’ Employers must pay thousands in fees, the return overseas travel for their workers and help with accommodation,” Kelly said in a Sept. 3 post on X.

“Restaurant owners regularly tell me that their use of the TFW program protects jobs for Canadians. They tell me that they need some core staff that are ready to work the shifts Canadians don’t want or in roles Canadian youth don’t like.”