I last wrote about the Temporary Foreign Workers Program just over one year ago in August of 2024.
My reason for covering this topic at the time was due to former Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announcing that his Liberal government would implement a reduction in the size of the program.
The announced reduction was because of changes the Trudeau government quietly implemented to the program in 2022, when they significantly expanded it.
They did this by eliminating the requirement that temporary foreign workers make up less than 10 per cent of a company’s workforce. Additionally, they allowed businesses in urban areas to apply for the program even when local unemployment rates surpassed six per cent.
Businesses promptly took advantage of these new rules which has led to an unprecedented situation today, where the number of temporary foreign workers filling entry-level job positions in Canada is at an all-time high.
Because of the 2022 program changes, many young Canadians have struggled to find summer jobs in 2024 and again in 2025. Statistics Canada latest numbers show it has increased yet again to 14.6 per cent in July 2025, making the situation even worse.
What happened to the Liberals’ promise to reduce the size of the Temporary Foreign Workers workforce?
The program (as posted at immigration.ca) “has issued 105,195 permits so far in 2025, compared to 109,310 in all of 2024. The 2025 target is only 82,000 for the whole year. This indicates the program has already exceeded its quota by more than 20 percent halfway through the year.”
This Liberal inaction creates a serious problem. A surplus of labour for entry-level positions is artificially suppressing wage growth. This creates a challenging situation for vulnerable entry-level workers, especially during times of high inflation and rising living costs.
The solution?
Our Conservative Official Opposition has called for the permanent scrapping of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and to immediately end new permits. Far too many corporations are relying on foreign labour while Canadians pay the price. Recent data shows a 7.4 per cent increase in Employment Insurance requests and that is since Prime Minister Mark Carney took office earlier this year.
Youth employment is now at its lowest level in more than a quarter-century (outside the pandemic), while an oversaturated job market continues to suppress wages even for the gainfully employed. In fact, over the last decade, temporary foreign workers have ballooned to almost two percent of our total private sector workforce.
Shadow Minister for Immigration, Michelle Rempel Garner observed, “As Canada’s economy slides into recession, productivity hits rock bottom, and AI disrupts the job market — all while we grapple with housing and healthcare crises — Canadian youth are trapped. They can’t buy homes or start families without good-paying jobs, but they can’t get those jobs without experience, lost to competition from temporary foreign labour.”
Locally, here in the Okanagan, we have many working under a separate program called the Seasonal Agriculture Worker Program.
This program operates well as it is run quite differently with housing, medical and various consulates working with farmers and their industry associations to resolve concerns. While our Conservative proposal would permanently abolish the Temporary Foreign Workers Program, we would retain this separate, standalone program for legitimately difficult-to-fill agricultural labour positions.
In addition, for legitimate ultra-low-unemployment regions, there would be a transition period of, at most, five years while the program winds down, but no new permits would be issued anywhere in Canada.
Conservatives believe it is time for Canadian jobs to benefit Canadian workers and that we must fight to protect our youth and all Canadians from reckless policies that lock them out of work and suppress their wages.
My question this week: Do you support this proposal to end the Temporary Foreign Worker Program while still protecting our agricultural sector? Why or why not?
Dan Albas is the Conservative MP for the riding of Okanagan Lake West—South 麻豆精选.
