As the race between the Liberals and Conservatives heats up before election day, the union for B.C. ironworkers is calling on both parties to commit to major changes to Canada’s migrant worker programs.
“It’s a business model to suppress wages,” said Doug Parton of Ironworkers Local 97. The union represents about 2,400 ironworkers across B.C. and the Yukon.
While the federal government says its temporary foreign worker program helps address skilled labour shortages in construction, agriculture and other industries, Parton said that shortage has emerged because the program lets employers offer low wages that aren’t attracting Canadian workers.
“It makes me sick, the level of abuse that some of these foreign workers have been so subject to,” he said. “It’s not right. They’re hard workers.”
“For 15 years, I’ve called on multiple levels of government to make a change. It’s interesting that they all agree that there’s a problem,” Parton said. “But every time I leave Ottawa, the abuse of that program gets worse and worse.”
So far, however, the top parties’ policies on the program are vague. The Conservatives, Liberals and NDP all say the program is necessary to address labour shortages. So far, only the NDP has pitched a plan to address human rights concerns.
Human rights organizations demand changes
A United Nations special rapporteur referred to Canada’s temporary foreign worker program as a “breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery” in a report last fall, calling for a major overhaul of the system.
The report recommended Canada end closed work permits, offer expanded permanent residency to all workers in Canada, protect foreign workers’ rights to unionize and increase oversight of the program.
In January, the human rights organization Amnesty International released its own report about how the program exposes labourers to abuse and discrimination across sectors including agriculture, food processing, the care system and construction.
Raul Gatica of Dignidad Migrante Society said his organization has been asking the government for a major overhaul of the program for years.
“There is a structural problem with the program,” he said.
The biggest change Gatica is calling for is for temporary workers to receive open work permits, which would allow them to leave employment contracts and look for other work without being deported.
“Being tied to a single employer is the most treacherous thing that allows the abuse of an employee,” Gatica said. “We have to erase it.”
Other advocates attributed cases of low salaries and poor working conditions to bad employers, instead of the temporary worker program.
Hugo Velazquez, a director with the immigration non-profit MOSAIC, agrees with the federal government that the temporary foreign worker program is necessary to reach Canada’s economic and infrastructure goals.
“The economy cannot grow and cannot continue without them,” he said. “Because of the housing crisis, millions of units have to be built. Without temporary foreign workers, that’s not going to happen.”
Velazquez added it’s important to note migrant workers are not taking Canadians’ jobs.
The temporary foreign worker program requires that employers prove Canadian workers did not apply to jobs — or were not qualified to fill them — before they can hire a migrant worker.
Wages must increase, union says
Parton of the ironworkers union says construction jobs aren’t being filled because Canadian workers can’t afford to work at the wages offered, not because there’s no interest.
“If there truly is a skilled labour shortage, then common sense would dictate that you would pay more for that skilled labour, and that hasn’t happened,” he said. “Instead, they are paid less.”
Provincial job bank data shows that last year, ironworkers in B.C. made an hourly wage of between $26 and $49.50, with the median hourly wage sitting at $37.58.
Instead of cutting the program, Velazquez said, it’s up to unions to protect temporary workers from suffering abuses. He also suggested updating the program to better reflect and address the needs of undocumented workers who are employed by Canadian farms and for construction projects.
“The reality is many workers are needed,” he said. “Unions should protect both them and Canadians, because they’re here and they’re a reality, and they’re in the thousands.”
According to publicly available data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, in 2024 there were more than 37,000 people in B.C. who held work permits under the temporary foreign worker program, more than 4,500 of whom worked in construction trades or as construction trades helpers or labourers.
Last year there were also more than 24,000 people in B.C. under International Mobility Program work permits, a separate stream that allows employers to hire a foreign worker without needing to prove that no Canadian worker took the job.
Nearly 2,200 of the workers under the IMP were employed in construction trades or as construction trades helpers or labourers.
Justin Wiltshire, a labour economist at the University of Victoria, said that while temporary foreign workers make up a small portion of workers in Canada, they are needed to fill construction positions as many existing labourers age out of the workforce.
“For a long time, Canada has not been generating enough construction workers,” he said. “We don’t have enough interest from Canadian-born people to go into the construction trades.”
The temporary foreign worker program is flawed, Wiltshire said, but Canada is reliant on it.
“Without it, we would have been in pretty dire straits in Canada,” Wiltshire added. “But it’s not a long-term solution.”
He said he suspects that instead of reforming or ending the program, Canada will continue with the program until it can address skilled labour shortages with technological advancements that allow construction with fewer workers.
Addressing skilled labour shortages
The Conservative Party of Canada did not respond to requests for comment. But the party’s policy declaration says it recognizes temporary workers as a “valuable source of potential immigrants.”
It says the government should continue developing projects that address skill shortages and attract temporary workers to Canada.
The Conservative party’s policy declaration also calls for the government to look at ways for foreign workers to transition from temporary to permanent status and to ensure temporary workers receive the same protections under minimum employment standards as Canadian workers — both policies recommended by the UN report.
Steven Tufts, a labour geographer at York University, said Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is trapped between a nativist position on the program and a pro-business position that affords construction employers low-cost labour in temporary foreign workers.
“Poilievre, for the last two years, has been talking about responsible migration levels,” Tufts said. “But there’s part of that maple MAGA base that isn’t enthusiastic about migration in any form.”
Meanwhile, Tufts said, the NDP would likely always call for reform of the program over abolishing it.
“The progressive position is eventual reform, substitution for regular pathways to citizenship, but that’s not something that can happen overnight,” Tufts said. “The [NDP] knows it’s not a great program and it’s exploitative, but it’s better than nothing if it’s the only way you can access labour.”
NDP campaign spokesperson Anne McGrath said in an email that, if elected, the party will review appropriate immigration levels.
McGrath said the review will take into account family reunification, skilled labour needs, infrastructure needs and the need to support Canadian workers and newcomers.
She added previous governments have created an immigration system that works well for big corporations instead of workers.
“We have seen them expanding the temporary foreign worker program so CEOs can make more profits by abusing and paying less for foreign workers,” McGrath said. “New Democrats would change that. Canadian workers should be prioritized.”
The Liberal Party of Canada did not respond to requests for comment. But the previous federal government saw the temporary foreign worker program as a key way to address skilled labour shortages, and Tufts said the party is not likely to make any major changes to it.
“They’ve been comfortable with this program,” Tufts said. “They tweak the numbers from time to time and they respond to activists with some reforms, but I can’t see the Liberals gutting this program or abolishing it.”
“Temporary and permanent economic immigration pathways play a complementary role in helping address Canada’s labour market shortages in the construction sector,” Mary Rose Sabater, a spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, told The Tyee by email.
