Officers skipped checks on foreign worker cases

Staff were ordered not to vet TFW employers in order to expedite process

- GHADA ALSHARIF AND KENYON WALLACE

Temporary foreign workers plant strawberries on a farm in Mirabel, Que., in 2020. A longtime Employment and Social Development Canada employee told the Star that, as businesses were allowed to hire more workers, checks that curbed fraud in the program have been eroded, prioritizing speed over scrutiny.

As the Trudeau government promises to crack down on a temporary foreign worker program it admits has been abused, a Star investigation has revealed the government is fast-tracking applications by directing processing officers to skip crucial steps designed to prevent fraud.

Beginning in January 2022, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) directed staff to apply “streamlining measures” when evaluating the legitimacy of applications by employers who want to hire temporary foreign workers.

According to internal ESDC documents obtained by the Star and interviews with a current ESDC employee, routine checks meant to ensure the system is not abused by unscrupulous employers have been suspended in an effort to process applications faster.

Those checks include contacting employers to confirm that they actually applied to hire a worker, verifying lawyers and consultants applying on behalf of employers are in good standing with their regulator and clarifying overtime, vacation and benefits promised to the worker.

“This really shows a complete contradiction between the publicfacing government policies and how the program is actually run,” said Catherine Connelly, a professor at McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business who has been studying the temporary foreign workers program for more than a decade who examined the internal ESDC documents.