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The Prime Minister this morning announcing a modest curtailment of the TFW program.


From the above:

1724680094765.png


The only thing wrong w/the above moves, is that they are inadequate in scope and scale, and they're late.
 
Northern Light said:
The Prime Minister this morning announcing a modest curtailment of the TFW program.


From the above:

View attachment 591195

The only thing wrong w/the above moves, is that they are inadequate in scope and scale, and they're late.
Click to expand...
Changing national policies and procedures is a bit like changing course on an aircraft carrier - it takes time to show results. I think the new Rules for TFWs are virtually same as those in effect before covid. Yes, they could have doner this 6 months ago but 'better late than never'. A longer-term plan should be to SLOWLY restrict TFWs more so that employers get used to fact that if they want labour they will need to pay more to attract Canadians and we will need to get used to the idea that this probably means higher prices!
 
DSC said:
Changing national policies and procedures is a bit like changing course on an aircraft carrier - it takes time to show results. I think the new Rules for TFWs are virtually same as those in effect before covid. Yes, they could have doner this 6 months ago but 'better late than never'. A longer-term plan should be to SLOWLY restrict TFWs more so that employers get used to fact that if they want labour they will need to pay more to attract Canadians and we will need to get used to the idea that this probably means higher prices!
Click to expand...

The low wage stream was almost entirely shut down in the Harper years (excluding agriculture). It was the current government that reopened it. The appropriate number of TFWs in fast food establishments, commercial bakeries, working as office cleaners or security guards is zero.

***

While, in general, we agree above, I think the urgency to make housing more affordable and drive wages higher is extreme, and in this case, damage to businesses be damned, I expect some Covid-like urgency to slash the number of temporary workers and temporary residents by at least 1/2 over 2 years.

Officially, for now, the government is only aiming to get back down to 5%, where I think 3% or less would be desirable.
 
The P.M. this morning has also announced tariffs on Chinese made EV's and Chinese produced steel and aluminum products. As one who has travelled and worked extensively in China for the past 20 or so years, and continues to work with Chinese clients, I agree with this move. As one quote from the CBC report notes: "It's very important for us to have a level playing field. The Chinese are very good at what they do, but what they do also includes breaking the rules," . Constantly.
 
Admiral Beez said:
If only that were true.

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Indeed, a better metaphor is an oil tanker. Aircraft carriers are actually relatively fast and nimble for their size. They need to contribute airspeed to help with aircraft takeoffs and landings.
 
https://thehub.ca/2024/08/23/mike-m...ink-canadas-temporary-foreign-worker-program/

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/bus...porary-foreign-workers-in-entry-level-office/

Abdullah Balal, a licensed immigration consultant in Oakville, Ont., questioned why employers needed to look outside the country for admin workers. “How is a Canadian company in an urban or semi-urban area not able to find an administrative assistant?”

Mr. Balal said this surge of admin work likely includes cases of fraud, in which temporary residents pay employers for jobs, often so they can stay in the country longer and have a better shot at obtaining permanent residency. The federal government has acknowledged the existence of fraud in the program.

Kerry Molitor, a licensed immigration consultant in St. Catharines, Ont., said that administrative assistant roles are highly desirable for temporary residents because they have a relatively low barrier to entry, but still allow people to qualify for the Express Entry pool of immigration candidates.
Click to expand...
 
Richard White said:
Australia is limiting foreign student enrollment to 270,000 students in 2025.

Coupled with highly restrictive immigration they are working to bring cost of living and a housing crisis under control.

Makes you wonder what more can be done here.

https://www.reuters.com/world/austr...nt-enrolments-migration-crackdown-2024-08-27/
Click to expand...

Canada imposed caps on foreign students first, by a few months.

As to whether the cuts are comparable......

Canada will issue 360,000 foreign student visas next year, supposedly. Canada being 1.67x the population of Australia....... A comparison would ask are we cutting to above/below the adjusted Australian number?

The answer is below. The Aussie number x 1.67 would see Canada issue 450,900 new student visas next year, and we will come in 90,000 below that.

To be clear, I think there's room to cut further, and to essentially limit foreign students entirely to the University stream, no one in Community College.
 
Last edited:
afransen said:
Immigration fraud is absolutely rampant.
Click to expand...
Oops! Looks more like the Trudeau Liberals got a whiff of this story and tried to pre-empt it.

🙄

A special reminder that even if you voted for the Liberals, that did not give them the mandate to demolish and compromise our immigration system.

Government officers told to skip fraud prevention steps when vetting temporary foreign worker applications, Star investigation finds​

Measures to fast-track applications resulted in fewer checks to prevent fraud, a source tells the Star. The government counters it is “taking concrete steps” address fraud in the program.
Aug. 27, 2024
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As the Trudeau government promises to crack down on a temporary foreign worker program it admits has been abused, a Star investigation has revealed the government is fast-tracking applications by directing processing officers to skip crucial steps designed to prevent fraud.

Beginning in January 2022, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) directed staff to apply “streamlining measures” when evaluating the legitimacy of applications by employers who want to hire temporary foreign workers.

According to internal ESDC documents obtained by the Star and interviews with a current ESDC employee, routine checks meant to ensure the system is not abused by unscrupulous employers have been suspended in an effort to process applications faster.

Those checks include contacting employers to confirm they actually applied to hire a worker, verifying that lawyers and consultants applying on behalf of employers are in good standing with their regulator, and clarifying the overtime, vacation and benefits promised to the worker.
Click to expand...
“This really shows a complete contradiction between the public-facing government policies and how the program is actually run,” said Catherine Connelly, a professor at McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business who has been studying the temporary foreign workers program for more than a decade who examined the internal ESDC documents.

“On one hand, we’re told the government will crack down on everything, and then on the other hand, we see from the documents that this is clearly a rubber stamp,” she said. “If the government is not going to do even basic checks, how can the public have any confidence in anything?”
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Neither the government announcement nor the ESDC’s response to the Star said whether it would abandon the expedited process and return to the checks and safeguards that were once in place.

A long-time ESDC employee on the front line of labour market impact assessment (LMIA) processing told the Star that as the TFW program ballooned and businesses were allowed to hire more and more workers, checks that curbed fraud in the program have been eroded, prioritizing speed over scrutiny. (The Star granted the employee anonymity due to concerns they could lose their job for speaking out.)

“The checks and balances have been reduced so much that there’s very little we can do,” the employee said. “People have complained to management, but nothing has been done.”
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The employee said that since the directive to speed up application reviews came down from national headquarters, staff have scaled back on approximately “50 per cent of what we’re supposed to read on the application” and that while potential fraud is reported, “nothing” happens.

One of the most alarming revelations in the streamlining documents, the ESDC employee said, is the department’s awareness of the risks associated with overlooking information while skipping steps.

There’s a Q&A section at the bottom of several directives to address potential staff concerns. One of the questions reads: “I’m concerned that I’ll miss some important information if I follow the streamlined assessment steps. What will happen if I make a mistake?”

The answer says that the assessment process is a “risk-based approach” balancing “the needs of the Canadian labour market with the integrity of the program.”
Click to expand...

www.thestar.com

Government officers told to skip fraud prevention steps when vetting temporary foreign worker applications, Star investigation finds

Measures to fast-track applications resulted in fewer checks to prevent fraud, a source tells the Star. The government counters it is "taking concrete steps" address fraud in the program.
www.thestar.com www.thestar.com

Chilling- there should be legal repercussions for those responsible for this:
1724765969387.png


1724766031062.png
 
Last edited:
jje1000 said:
Oops! Looks more like the Trudeau Liberals got a whiff of this story and tried to pre-empt it.

🙄

A special reminder that even if you voted for the Liberals, that did not give them the mandate to demolish and compromise our immigration system.







www.thestar.com

Government officers told to skip fraud prevention steps when vetting temporary foreign worker applications, Star investigation finds

Measures to fast-track applications resulted in fewer checks to prevent fraud, a source tells the Star. The government counters it is "taking concrete steps" address fraud in the program.
www.thestar.com www.thestar.com

Chilling- there should be legal repercussions for those responsible for this:
View attachment 591542

View attachment 591543
Click to expand...
From the link:

“The department has considered and accepted the risk of an important piece of information being overlooked during the assessment of an LMIA application,” the document states."

Translation: The department accepts the risk that any instance where a TFW does something that causes embarrassment to the government will be fully assigned to the the reviewing member and senior managers will accept their performance bonus for meeting a government target.

Having been involved in regulatory enforcement that migrated to 'risk-based', it is little more than a rolling of the dice, crossing of one's fingers and hoping that nothing bad happens, at least before you move on.
 
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