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The federal government’s plans to fast-track permanent residence applications for temporary workers in limbo failed to meet the expectations created by what one opposition MP and immigration experts called “misleading” messaging from the minister.
On May 4, Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced that it would fast-track permanent residence applications for up to 33,000 temporary workers already living in Canada as part of a one-time initiative—first announced in the 2025 budget—supporting the government’s efforts to reduce the number of temporary residents to less than five per cent of the population by the end of 2027.
NDP MP Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East, B.C.), her party’s immigration critic, told The Hill Times in a May 5 email that the language used in the government’s announcement was “misleading and outright deceptive.”
“What they have done is create confusion and fuel opportunities for those who are angling to exploit temporary foreign workers who have been negatively impacted by the drastic changes to Canada’s immigration policies. It is giving false hope to temporary foreign workers,” she said.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NDP Immigration Critic Jenny Kwan’s statement in response to government announcement on accelerating permanent residence for 33,000 workers
The language used in the announcement by the Carney Liberals is misleading and outright deceptive. What they have done is create confusion and fuel opportunities for those who are angling to exploit temporary foreign workers who have been negatively impacted by the drastic changes to Canada's immigration policies. It is giving false hope to temporary foreign workers.
To be clear, this is not a new program. The immigration levels plan is not increasing. Intake for the argi-foods and caregiver programs have been closed since last year. They will not be eligible for PR through this program. All that the Carney Liberals are doing is "accelerating" the processing of 33,000 temporary foreign workers who have been working in the community for 2 or more years and have already applied for PR under the PNP, Atlantic, Rural and Francophone streams. In other words, they are announcing that IRCC will just do their job to processing these applications in a timely fashion - nothing more.
Successive Liberal and Conservative governments have heavily relied on migrant workers to support Canada’s economy. The last time Pierre Poilievre was in government, Conservatives doubled the TFW program —dramatically helping corporate chains treat migrant workers as cheap and disposable.
Then in 2022, Justin Trudeau expanded the use of temporary foreign workers, allowing big businesses to use temporary foreign workers for up to 30 per cent of their workforce, regardless of local unemployment rates. Both the Liberals and Conservatives have turned the TFWP into an ongoing business model that tramples on worker’s rights while suppressing wages in Canada.
Under the constant threat of deportation, workers are often unable to leave their jobs or challenge unfair and unsafe labour practices. They often endure poor and dangerous working conditions, racism, discrimination, wage theft, and are denied fundamental human and labour rights, trapping them in involuntary servitude.
The Liberals say they want to regularize them since 2021, it was even in the former Minister of Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship’s mandate letter. But despite this commitment, not only have the Liberals reneged on their promise, they began proactively blame migrant workers, international students and new comers for their failed housing policy and abruptly changed immigration policies that further negatively impacted these workers.
As a result, many of the temporary foreign workers are now finding themselves falling out of status. This is wrong. They are not responsible for the failures of Canada's housing policy.
The NDP is calling for the Liberals to adopt a broad and comprehensive regularization initiative for the workers that are already in Canada so that they have a clear and accessible pathway to permanent residency. New Democrats strongly believe in the principle that if you are good enough to work and study in Canada, you are good enough to stay.
The NDP is also calling for the Liberals to invest in domestic labour and return to a standard of landed status for the full spectrum of workers.