Poilievre calls on Liberals to shut down temporary foreign worker program

OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling on the federal government to shut down the temporary foreign worker program, saying it is to blame for rising youth unemployment. 

Poilievre appeared on Wednesday alongside Calgary MP Michelle Rempel Garner, his party’s immigration critic, who in recent weeks has begun naming major restaurant and retail businesses, from Canadian Tire to Booster Juice and Subway, on social media for posting jobs open to temporary foreign workers.

Jobs like these should be going to Canadian youth, Poilievre said at his announcement in Mississauga, Ont., pointing to data showing the Canadian unemployment rate among youth aged 15 to 24 has reached its highest since 2010, excluding the worst years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The Liberals have to answer, why is it that they’re shutting our own youth out of jobs and replacing them with low-wage temporary foreign workers from poor countries who are ultimately being exploited,” Poilievre said.

The temporary foreign worker program is a federal program that allows Canadian businesses to hire workers from outside of Canada to fill jobs temporarily, by first applying to Employment and Social Development Canada and showing what efforts the business has made to fill positions with a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident. 

Last year, the federal Liberal government, then led by former prime minister Justin Trudeau, placed limits on the extent to which employers can draw from this program to fill their labour force, particularly in the low-wage stream.

That followed concerns about abuse and fraud by some employers and coincided with rising concern from economists and housing experts about the impact Canada’s immigration levels were having on housing prices, as well as the availability of services.

Last November, the Liberals announced cuts to both temporary and permanent immigration targets, changing the goal for 2025 to 395,000 permanent residents, down from the previously budgeted 500,000.

Poilievre has turned more attention to immigration since the spring federal election, which delivered the Liberals their fourth consecutive victory, albeit to a minority government.

His office said in a press release on Wednesday that ending the temporary foreign worker program should be followed by the creation of a new “ standalone program” dedicated to meeting the needs of the agricultural sector, which relies on temporary workers to run farming operations. 

Poilievre’s office also proposed regions of the country with low unemployment a transition period of five years.

More to come … 

National Post

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our politics newsletter, First Reading, here.