If you know a young person who struggled to find a summer job they are not alone. This has been the worst summer on record for youth employment outside of the pandemic. Many factors — from a weak economy to a population boom of young people — are at play with one of the largest being the federal government’s 2022 decision to deregulate the low-wage stream of the temporary foreign worker program.
On April 4, 2022, a mere 13 days after the Liberals and NDP signed their Supply and Confidence Agreement, the federal government announced arguably the largest deregulation of the Temporary Foreign Worker program in Canadian history. The program’s low-wage stream, which allows employers not in the agricultural industry (they have a separate stream) to bring in workers and pay them wages under the provincial median (currently $28.39 in Ontario), was radically transformed. The government removed the rule that employers could only bring in workers in some low-wage occupations if the local unemployment rate was less than six per cent allowing firms in areas of high unemployment to access the program. Companies had been limited to having only 10 per cent of their workforce be low-wage temporary foreign workers; this was raised to 20 per cent. In seven sectors, including accommodation and food services, this was raised to 30 per cent.
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