Jason Kenney speaks in Ottawa on May 1, 2012.ADRIAN WYLD/The Canadian Press
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The Temporary Foreign Worker Program causes headaches for Ottawa like no other.
As immigration minister, Jason Kenney bore the brunt of accusations that the program was being used to push down wages. He was front and centre in April when he reluctantly suspended a fast-track system that allowed employers to bring in foreign workers through a process called an Accelerated Market Opinion.
Now as Employment Minister, Mr. Kenney has a bigger say in larger policy decisions around foreign worker rules. For instance, some positions require employers to obtain a Labour Market Opinion from Mr. Kenney's department. These LMOs are essentially a permit that verifies whether the company has done all it can to find Canadians for the available jobs.
Six months after the suspension, Mr. Kenney says the government is still weighing a wide range of options for reforming the Temporary Foreign Worker program. In an interview, he said he expects a decision by the end of the year.
"There's a large spectrum of issues on the table. I'm not going to pre-judge the outcome of our review process except to say we're being very open-minded about this," he said. "The objective is clear: Striking the right balance. We don't want to diminish growth in dynamic industries in regions because of a labour shortage, but nor do we want employers to become dependent on the TFW program as their first option."
Currently less than half of the roughly 200,000 temporary foreign workers entering Canada each year require an LMO, he said, and Ottawa is looking at whether that should change.
Among the suggestions the federal government is weighing is whether to expand the number of positions that require LMOs or provide exemptions from that step for positions that are in high demand and that are located in areas of near-full employment. Mr. Kenney said he has also come across calls for Ottawa to charge higher fees for employers who are frequent users of the program.
The government's April changes to the foreign worker program were largely driven by public concern over the links between foreign workers and the outsourcing of Canadian jobs. Business groups continued to support the program, but it had taken a big hit with the public.
Mr. Kenney's job over the next few months will be to try and find a compromise that will please employers without recreating the political lighting rod that the Temporary Foreign Worker program had become.
"We've had some pushback," the minister acknowledges. "The [Canadian Federation of Independent Business] said that our round one on the TFW reforms was, quote 'worst thing our government has done,' but we're doing what Canadians expect of us, which is to make sure the employers do everything they possibly can to hire Canadians first."
Bill Curry covers finance in Ottawa.
Bill Curry