News

The Benefits of Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program

Temporary foreign workers, or TFW’s have been the subject of much controversy and strife within discussion with Canadians. While there have been some small number of cases where the program has been abused, the majority of people who utilize the program have found that the benefits of the program cannot be denied.

In a nutshell, the Temporary Foreign Worker Program allows Canadian businesses (predominantly those located in West-Central Canada) to hire foreign workers on a temporary basis to meet short-term demands for skill and labour, when Canadian and permanent residents are not available. For a broad overview check out this previous blog post on the temporary foreign worker program in Canada.

The Temporary Foreign Worker Program in Canada: An Introduction

According to the Government of Canada, the Canadian born workforce is on a steady decline.  Employers across the country are experiencing skilled labour shortages, and Stats Canada foresees that before the middle of the next decade, almost all labour force growth will come from immigration (Government of Canada, 2014).

Enter the utilization of foreign recruitment to fill this gap – but how does the foreign recruitment process work in Canada?

 Perhaps it’s best to start off with a quick background. To begin with, only Canadian citizens and permanent residents have the right to work in Canada. Anyone who is not a Canadian permanent resident must obtain authorization from Citizenship & Immigration Canada (CIC) to work in Canada, and Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC). These two departments admin the Temporary Foreign Worker (or TFW) program.