Peter Csillag: Is ending the Temporary Foreign Worker Program a good idea? 

More reasonable assessment and approach than that of MP Jivani’s call to abolish the program complemely save for agriculture workers. And good question for policymakers and politicians to ponder and influence policy changes:

…A question for government policymakers would be how to incentivize the private sector to make large-scale training investments for underemployed Canadians, and just as importantly, how to make in-demand professions appealing for young adults and underemployed Canadians? There’s no single answer given that needs would vary across regions and sectors.

There are international examples that serve as a useful start. Germany has a dual education system integrating school-based learning with work-based practice. Approximately 52 percent of young Germans complete dual vocational education and training apprenticeships, and in many instances, they are offered long-term positions at the same companies where they trained. It maintains the country’s status as an industrial powerhouse while proactively addressing youth unemployment. Adopting such an approach would mean a longer timeline to wind down the TFW program, transitioning employers only gradually away from the program to minimize economic disruption.

For regional priority sectors, the answer may be a provincial role. Last year, the Government of Alberta launched a program specifically to transition temporary foreign workers in the tourism and hospitality industry to permanent residency. To support the province’s ambitious tourism growth agenda, the program allows qualified candidates, foreign workers already living and working in Alberta with a job offer from an Alberta tourism and hospitality employer, to apply under the provincially nominated immigration stream.

The unique challenges facing different regions and sectors mean that ending the TFW program cannot be done overnight, and not without a clear path for training workers and addressing regional economic challenges. But after decades of the program swinging between a “more and faster” and “Canadians first” pendulum, only to be left with the same structural problems and displaced Canadian workers, the time to have this discussion is now.

Source: Peter Csillag: Is ending the Temporary Foreign Worker Program a good idea?