Ottawa is contemplating changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program that will “worsen the migrant worker crisis,” according to migrant justice campaigners.

Employment and Social Development Canada is mulling regulations that would govern a new migrant worker stream for agricultural and fish processing workers, according to documents released by the Migrant Rights Network.

The changes would include ending the practice of employer-specific work visas, replacing them with “stream-specific” visas, a change meant to allow workers to retain their visas if they switch to another employer in the same industry.

But the Migrant Rights Network — a coalition of migrant-led organizations across Canada — says this doesn’t address the underlying issues, leaving workers vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. The campaigners are calling for Canada to grant permanent residency to workers upon arrival.

Filipina worker describes ordeal

At a virtual media conference on the proposed changes to the program on July 30, a migrant worker from the Philippines described her ordeal working in New Brunswick’s seafood sector. Gina Lopez said she started working in a New Brunswick seafood processing plant seven years ago.

“They promised me permanent residence when I arrived,” she said, describing the methods used to entice temporary foreign workers.

Lopez said it was her “dream” to gain permanent resident status and the protections it afforded.

“This dream became a nightmare,” she said. “They promised me permanent residency just to keep me working.”

Lopez said she was promised a contract of 40 hours a week during the season, but very little work was available once she was in Canada, leaving her without an income.

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“There were weeks when I didn’t work, leaving me without money to feed myself and to send money back to my daughter.”

The Migrant Rights Network is calling for a minimum wage of $20-25 per hour, with a guaranteed 40 hour work week.

Lopez described her work conditions as abusive. “While I was working, I faced verbal abuse and discrimination from supervisors, co-workers, and even company bus drivers,” she said.

“I was told ‘I need to get used to it.’”

Lopez described how, after her mothers’ death in the Philippines, her supervisor told her if she took time off for the funeral she would be fired.

“We, the migrant workers in Canada, are treated as disposable workers,” she said.

She eventually got support from the New Brunswick-based Madhu Verma Migrant Justice Centre — part of the Migrant Rights Network — and was able to obtain an open work permit for vulnerable workers, allowing her to work elsewhere.

Migrant justice campaigners say that only permanent residency will allow workers to avoid systemic and widespread abuse linked to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

Karen Cocq, a spokesperson for the Migrants Rights Network, said that employers “dangle permanent residencies above workers’ heads as a means of extorting, exploiting, and abusing workers.”

In a media release, the Migrant Rights Network said that under the regulations currently being mulled by decision-makers, workers would only gain access to jobs with “unfilled Labour Market Impact Assessments,” a reference to documents that employers typically need before hiring migrant workers.

In practice, “employers rarely have unfilled labour market impact assessments, don’t advertise vacant positions and routinely blacklist anyone who asserts their rights, making real labour mobility virtually impossible under the proposed system,” the group stated.

Housing costs could reach 30 per cent of income

Other policies outlined in the discussion papers include “vague, non‑measurable guidelines” that campaigners say will replace previous housing standards “that were not implemented.”

Another change would allow employers to charge some workers nearly a third of their income for housing, amid widespread reports of poor housing for migrant workers.

Migrant workers in New Brunswick have described living in substandard accommodations that are mold-infested and overcrowded. The Migrant Rights Network is calling for zero deductions for housing.

The group says the changes, if implemented, would also fail to address issues including barriers to health care and the cost of transportation to and from Canada.

Feds say ‘no determinations or proposals have been made’  

Employment and Social Development Canada couldn’t make anyone available for an interview but provided a written statement by email. You can read the full statement here.

It said, in part, that the documents were shared with groups including the Migrant Rights Network for comment and that the work so far was limited to stakeholder consultation. “No determinations or proposals have been made,” it said.

“Canada is committed to fair and stable compensation for workers and suggestions of pay cuts do not reflect intentions for the program moving forward.”

On the question of housing costs potentially reaching 30 per cent of income, the statement noted that “the upper limit of 30 per cent reflects the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation definition of housing affordability.”

The statement also said that “the Government of Canada takes the health and safety of all workers, including temporary foreign workers, very seriously,” and that “temporary foreign workers have the same workplace rights and protections as Canadians and permanent residents.”

UN Special Rapporteur Tomoya Obokata met with migrant workers employed in seafood processing in New Brunswick in 2023. In his 2024 report, he called the Temporary Foreign Worker Program in Canada a “breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery.”

Lucas Reynolds is a student at Mount Allison University and a summer intern at the NB Media Co-op. David Gordon Koch is a journalist with the NB Media Co-op.

This reporting has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS).