Question Period Note: RESPONSE TO CRITICISM OF THE TEMPORARY FOREIGN WORKER PROGRAM BY THE UN SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR

The United Nations’ (UN) Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery released his final report in August 2024. This report continues to liken the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program to a “breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery.”

• All workers in Canada deserve safe, healthy, and dignified working conditions. Mistreatment or abuse of temporary foreign workers – or any worker – is never tolerated.

• The Government of Canada acknowledges the final report from the UN Special Rapporteur and remains open to recommendations to better protect workers in Canada, including temporary foreign workers.

• Ensuring the health and safety of temporary foreign workers and that they are free from any form of abuse while in Canada is a key priority.

• ESDC is taking concrete steps to better support these workers, including an investment of nearly $41M in a Migrant Support Worker Program that supports migrant workers in learning about and exercising their rights.

The United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur (SR) on contemporary forms of slavery concluded a recent visit to Canada and released its final report in August 2024. This report echoes the claims made in the Rapporteur’s initial End of Mission Statement (September 2023) and continues to be critical of both Canada’s treatment of migrant workers more generally, as well as the TFW Program more specifically.
The purpose of the SR visit was to assess Canada’s efforts to prevent and address contemporary forms of slavery, including forced labour, child labour, domestic servitude, debt bondage, labour exploitation, and sexual exploitation within its territory and abroad.

The SR’s final report put forth several recommendations linked to temporary foreign workers, including recommendations to:
· End the use of closed work permit regimes and allow all workers have the right the choose and change their employers in any sector without restriction or discrimination;
· Ensure that all migrant workers have a clear pathway to permanent residency from arrival and are able to benefit from federally-funded settlement services and other public services without discrimination;
· Regularize workers who have lost status, particularly those who were victims of contemporary forms of slavery;
· Create a single coordination body with full oversight of migrant workers’ rights and conditions;
· Provide equal access to adequate housing without discrimination in line with the National Housing Strategy Act;
· Ensure that all workers have equitable access to healthcare from their arrival, without discrimination or interjurisdictional inequities;
· Ensure that workers are able to effectively report abuses and receive protection, including providing language education before and after arrival to all workers and streamlining the process to obtain Open Work Permits for Vulnerable Workers; and
· Allocate sufficient resources and strengthen the labour inspection regime.

Canada has prepared an Addendum to this Report, which provides an opportunity to respond to its findings and to address any items that the Canadian government finds unbalanced. This document will be published alongside the Report on the UN’s website. Canada also provided an oral statement in response to the report at the 57th UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva on September 12, 2024.

If Pressed (on worker protection initiatives)

• As part of the Government of Canada’s broader commitment to protecting temporary foreign workers from mistreatment and abuse, ESDC introduced stronger worker protections through amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations in September 2022.

• These regulatory changes include requirements for employers to provide temporary foreign workers with information about their rights, access to health coverage, and measures that provide protection from reprisal when allegations of abuse and/or Program misuse are reported.

• In addition, IRCC introduced the Open Work Permit for Vulnerable Workers (OWP-V) in June 2019. This allows foreign workers who have employer-specific permits to leave situations where they are experiencing or at risk of experiencing abuse in their workplace.