Canada’s Corporate Welfare Class

Temporary foreign workers are no longer a rare presence in entry-level office roles.

Last year, employers were approved to hire more than 3,500 administrative assistants via the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, up from just 112 of those roles approved in 2016, according to figures published by the federal government. In addition, companies were authorized to hire nearly 2,000 administrative officers in 2023. (The TFW program accounts for a small share of foreign labour in Canada, so it’s likely that other pathways are being tapped for admin workers, too.)

What a scam, Trudeau and his cronies are working to alter Canada’s demographic so the Liberals can harvest votes and the corporate welfare class can profit by destroying the value of labour.

Standing by a lectern with a sign that read “Bring Home Our Jobs,” Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre had words for both the government and for businesses that he implied were abusing Canada’s temporary foreign workers program.

“Trudeau has destroyed our entire immigration system,” he said, referring to the massive expansion of workers applying under the low-wage labour market impact assessment (LMIA) stream.

In 2006, I arrived in Canada from England on a temporary skilled visa, sent by the University of Manchester to Edmonton to advance my training in sports surgeries. Born and raised in India, I completed my medical education there before moving to the UK for postgraduate orthopedic surgery training, spending eight years refining my skills. As the immigration officer handed back my passport that day, his parting words — ”Hope you stay back in Canada” — felt like a personal promise of acceptance and opportunity, an invitation to make Canada home after completing advanced training.

Fast forward to 2024: I did stay in Canada, planted roots, developed a practice, raised a family, and poured my heart into the community in Alberta, which embraced me as their own.

The Trudeau Liberals are channeling Captain Louis Renault as they react in shock to problems with Canada’s temporary foreign worker program. Movie fans will know Captain Renault as the corrupt police chief in Casablanca.

After Captain Renault barges into Rick’s Cafe — more of a nightclub and casino — Rick Blaine, played by Humphrey Bogart, walks up and asks on what grounds his establishment is being shut down.

“I’m shocked, shocked to find out that gambling is going on in here,” Captain Renault says.

A very good thread explaining the Liberal and NDP treachery.

Short thread time: How on earth did the number of low-wage temporary foreign workers nearly triple in 2022?

TL;DR – The federal government made some massive changes a mere 13 days after the Liberals and NDP signed the Supply and Confidence Agreement. pic.twitter.com/PrQ6XeJ1xT

— Dr. Mike P. Moffatt 🇨🇦🏅🏅 (@MikePMoffatt) August 10, 2024

High salaries, top-notch schools, beautiful scenery and low crime: the promise of a better life attracted over a million newcomers to Canada last year. But as idyllic as it may seem, a post-pandemic migration surge is revealing a dirty underbelly of the immigration system.

Fraud is running rampant in Canada’s temporary foreign worker program, another wrinkle in immigration debates playing out around the world as developed countries seek to bolster their labor forces without alienating the native-born population. In the US’s northern neighbor, critics have honed in on employers and consultants who illegally sell jobs to migrants desperate for an advantage in their quest for permanent residency. A patchwork of overwhelmed government agencies appears ill-equipped to crack down.

The federal government is planning to sharply cut the low-wage stream of the temporary foreign worker program back to prepandemic levels, government sources say, amid criticism of its growing use by Canadian employers.

Reliance on the low-wage stream has shot up since 2022, when Ottawa agreed to ease access to the program in response to calls from restaurant owners and other employers who said they were struggling to find staff after months of pandemic restrictions.

Even if they do cut the numbers and I doubt they will the damage is done.

Our Captains of Industry have enough slaves to last them for some time as the scam has generated a significant surplus.

Trudeau’s gov’t has lost track of the many foreign workers and students who have gone underground.

Evidently they’ve postponed the “path to citizenship” for an estimated 500K illegals.

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.

This is The Star.