{"id":214537,"date":"2025-09-10T03:57:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T03:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/214537\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T03:57:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T03:57:10","slug":"b-c-premier-david-eby-faces-internal-backlash-over-immigration-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/214537\/","title":{"rendered":"B.C. Premier David Eby faces internal backlash over immigration comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

B.C. Premier David Eby at a news conference in Surrey on Sept. 4.DARRYL DYCK\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

B.C. Premier David Eby<\/a> is facing pushback after linking Canada\u2019s Temporary Foreign Worker Program to high youth unemployment and strains on social services, with New Democrats calling his remarks out of step with party values.<\/p>\n

In response to a question about provincial belt-tightening at an unrelated news conference last week, Mr. Eby noted Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre\u2019s<\/a> call for Ottawa to axe the program<\/a> and said it was a timely issue that should be considered.<\/p>\n

The temporary foreign worker program is rife with abuse and should be cancelled or significantly reformed, Mr. Eby said. He also attributed B.C.\u2019s \u201cunacceptably high\u201d level of youth unemployment to the program, along with the international student visa program, and credited Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/a> for taking steps to rein in immigration.<\/p>\n

B.C. is willing to convene provinces to have a \u201cserious, grown-up conversation\u201d about the impact of immigration in Canada, he said. <\/p>\n

That conversation should include that \u201cthe majority of people using our food banks have been in Canada for less than two years, that our homeless shelters have new arrivals to Canada in them instead of people who have been living in our streets for a while, the fact that young people are facing challenges getting into the employment market,\u201d Mr. Eby said.<\/p>\n

Keller: Yes, Canada should (mostly) end our temporary foreign worker programs<\/a><\/p>\n

The response to Mr. Eby\u2019s comments was swift. Hermender Singh Kailley, secretary-treasurer at the BC Federation of Labour, said he was troubled to hear the Premier suggest that temporary foreign workers were taking up space in shelters and food banks. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat kind of language unfairly blames workers for a housing and affordability crisis they did not create,\u201d he wrote in a post to social media. \u201cIt paints racialized communities as a problem when the real issues are skyrocketing housing costs, underfunded public services, and a broken federal program that prioritizes cheap labour over fairness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former NDP children\u2019s minister Katrina Chen said she was \u201cfurious,\u201d and said immigrants like her should not serve as scapegoats for flawed government policy. Mr. Eby\u2019s remarks divide newcomers from Canadian citizens, she told The Globe and Mail. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs someone who was a foreign worker and later became a Canadian, I hope for greater understanding among neighbours,\u201d she said in an interview. \u201cWe all contribute to our diverse communities in different ways. I know many NDPers like me believe in building stronger, more caring communities for all. Divisions don\u2019t help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harry Bains, who served as minister of labour from 2017 to 2024, agreed with Mr. Eby\u2019s remarks that the Temporary Foreign Worker Program is flawed, noting that he heard many complaints about newcomers being abused and exploited during his time in cabinet. <\/p>\n

However, they should not be blamed for unemployment, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cYouth unemployment in B.C. is our issue, and it\u2019s always been higher than the normal unemployment rate,\u201d Mr. Bains said in an interview. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot blame the foreign worker, because we brought them in, because their employer made the case that we need them. We can\u2019t find local people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Figures released by Statistics Canada this month show that B.C.\u2019s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate among people ages 15 to 24 was 16.6 per cent in May, up from 10.5 per cent a year earlier. Only Alberta recorded a higher unemployment rate for the age category, at 17.2 per cent. <\/p>\n

Reached for comment, the Premier\u2019s office pointed to additional remarks from Mr. Eby saying that B.C.\u2019s strength is in its diversity, and that the immigration system needs to protect workers from abuse and exploitation. <\/p>\n

Social-service providers told The Globe that newcomers make up a small share of shelter users, but a larger proportion of food bank clients.<\/p>\n

First United reported that there is currently one immigrant staying in its Vancouver shelter, which is unusual, as there are usually none. Union Gospel Mission said it does not formally log this data, but that staff have reported it being less than 10 per cent based on informal conversations with clients.<\/p>\n

The Greater Vancouver Food Bank\u2019s 2024 report said that 35 per cent of people accessing their services that year said they did so because they had relocated internationally. Of new registrants so far this year, 61 per cent said they had been in Canada for two years or less.<\/p>\n

The Surrey Food Bank said, on any given month, no less than 45 per cent of clients are refugees, immigrants or international students.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real issue here is not where people are from, but the systemic concerns around affordability and food security, and that is being felt across the province by many different demographics of people and many different backgrounds of people,\u201d said Union Gospel Mission spokesperson Nicole Mucci. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: B.C. Premier David Eby at a news conference in Surrey on Sept. 4.DARRYL…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":214538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2147,50,4741],"class_list":{"0":"post-214537","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-pleasemod"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115177995800565905","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}