New Regulations Take Effect This Month

As of this month, the government of Canada is enforcing new regulations to the country’s temporary foreign worker program, as employers across the country brace themselves for labour shortages.

“Underlying all of these regulatory changes for the foreign worker program is that we recognize… that we are an aging population and those foreign workers – skilled and lower skilled – are going to be key to our future growth,” said one Calgary immigration lawyer.

Companies will now face time limits in employing foreign workers (four years in most cases) as well as more severe repercussions when terms are violated, including being barred from hiring temporary foreign workers for two years.

Critics are saying that the new regulations, however, leave too much room for interpretation, and could end up in heavy legal battles if Canada’s most powerful corporations find themselves on the wrong side of the new laws.