Canada Work Visa: Halt on food workers

In a wide variety of fields, workers with a job offer in hand can be granted a visa as a temporary worker. So was the case for staff in the food industry, until a temporary stop was announced by the Canadian Government.

A temporary moratorium has been placed on the issuance of Labour Market Opinions (LMOs) to employers seeking to hire workers in the food service industry, said the Minister of Employment and Social Development, Jason Kenney.

The decision came as the result of recent widespread allegations of fraud in the Temporary Foreign Worker Programme (TFWP), specifically involving recruitment in the mentioned work field.

The TFWP facilitates Canadian employers to hire workers from abroad, without these workers having to apply for residency directly. The TFWP is structured in such a way that it encourages employers to prioritise local work force over work force  from abroad, with a set of conditions that must be adhered to by the hiring employer before the temporary visa is granted.

One such requirement is the issuance of a Labour Market Opinion, which is required to be obtained for each vacancy an employer wishes to hire a foreign worker for.

Effective April 25, 2014, LMOs will no longer be processed for 33 occupations largely falling within the fields of food service and hospitality. The measure will remain in place until investigations into the alleged fraud have been completed, said the Minister.

Employers have been accused of various offenses, such as replacing Canadian workers with temporary foreign workers, hiring abroad instead of within Canada, and mistreating foreign workers in their employ.

This time last year several reforms were made to the TFWP in order to better curb abuse of the programme. “Abuse of the Temporary Foreign Worker program will not be tolerated,” said Minister Kenney. “Our government will continue to pursue significant reforms to the TFWP to ensure that employers make greater efforts to recruit and train Canadians and that it is only used as a last and limited resort when Canadians are not available.”

While ESDC has not indicated when the moratorium will be lifted, it has stated that this measure is intended to be temporary.

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