Jason Kenney set to introduce new temporary foreign worker rules

Employment Minister Jason Kenney is set to bring in at least two new rules for businesses that want to hire temporary foreign workers, including the requirement to pay those workers more,CBC News has learned.

Kenney will also tie the number of temporary foreign workers a company is allowed tothe unemployment rate

The goal is to raise the cost of hiring temporary foreign workers and to make it harder to hire them in regions with higher unemployment.

• Weyburn restaurant defends staffing moves and use of foreign temps
• Support pours in for Weyburn, Sask., waitresses who lost jobs
• Waitresses in Saskatchewan lose jobs to foreign workers

But the head of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business says he's afraid Kenney'smoves will gut the program.

"Retail, restaurant margins are already razor thin," Dan Kelly said.

"I fully expect that particularly across Alberta, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland,there will be restaurant closures as a result of this, taking Canadian jobs with them."

Employers and labour groups met with Kenneyon Thursday and sayKenney didn't tell themthat he is committed to the new measures.

Coming in weeks

Labour groups, on the other hand, are more supportive of the wage measure,hoping businesses will hire Canadians instead of temporary foreign workers.

"This is clearly a program in crisis, so sometimes you really need to make dramatic change in order to fix it," saidJerrry Dias, national president of UNIFOR, the country's largest private-sector union.

It's not clear how much the government will make businesses pay temporary foreign workers, or whether Canada's labour statistics are detailed enough to link the workers to unemployment.

Kenney is expected to announce the plan in the next few weeks.

The new rules expected to be announced willcome after two former longtime waitresses at a Saskatchewanrestaurant, who saythey lost their jobs to foreign workers, told the House of Commons finance committee that the Temporary Foreign Worker Program needs to be fixed.

"We sit before you today as proof theTFW program is broken," Sandy Nelsonsaid in her opening statement to the committee on Thursday.

The two want the government to take a closer look at employers who submitfalse Labour Market Opinions.

LMOsare a process by which employers demonstrate there are no Canadians to take available jobs. Since 2002, the federal government has allowed companies to hire temporary foreign workers for jobs they can't fill with Canadians.

In aninterview with CBC News, Shaunna Jennison-Yungsaid their main point is that there are abuses to theTemporary Foreign Worker Program for both Canadians and foreign workers that need to be addressed.

"We're hoping today we can talk to the right people and hopefully get some answers. Not only that, but let's fix this problem," she said.

Nelson andJennison-Yungwere both waitresses atBrothers Classic Grill and Pizza inWeyburn, Sask., until March 29,when they were dismissed and replaced with temporary foreign workers, they said.

'Blatant abuse of federal guidelines'

In her testimony, Nelsonweavedin elements of her experience as she outlined her concerns about the TFW program.

Nelson asked if Service Canada was notified in the case of her former employer discharging all employees save for a select few.

"Were new LMO contracts supplied for and were [records of employment] issued?" she asked.

"This to us is a blatant abuse of the federal guidelines."

Nelson also noted that temporary foreign workersare hired for very specific jobs.

"Is it not against the rules to have someone hired as a waitress/server to then work in housekeeping while the restaurant was under construction, without a change to the contract?" she asked, referring to what she witnessed in Saskatchewan.

Lack of information for Canadians

Nelson also raised the issue of foreign workers hired as housekeepers being asked "to do chores such as yard work and cleaning" at the boss's house.

"This is paramount to slavery, and as contract workers, they simply oblige," she said.

As she continued, Nelson lamented the lack of information readily available to Canadians regarding "reverse discrimination they may be experiencing in their workplaces." She called on the government to provide "more than a telephone number"for Canadians to report abuses.

"We believe reasons more people don't speak up include not knowing what their rights are, no one to actually handle complaints and having others turn it into a racist issue," she said.

Nelson said they received a letter from the office of Employment and Social Development Minister Kenneyregarding the issue, but owing to privacy issues, they were not informed of what the minister's office found.

"It has been quoted time and time again the government will not tolerate employers [hiring temporary foreign workers] when Canadian workers are available and willing to do the same jobs," she said in her statement.

"Yet here we are."