One in 10 employers inspected under Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker Program was found to have violated federal regulations last year, with Ottawa more than doubling financial penalties and tripling the number of employers banned from the program.According to a Jan. 20 briefing note from the labour department, inspectors found widespread non-compliance during investigations into employers participating in the Temporary Foreign Worker Program."Ten precent of employers were found non-compliant," the memo states.The department conducted 1,435 inspections during the year, resulting in $4.8 million in penalties, up from about $2 million the previous year. Thirty-six employers were banned from the program, three times as many as the year before.Officials said the inspections represented only a small fraction of approximately 14,000 complaints and tips received by the department.The briefing note, titled Worker Protections And Employer Compliance Under The Temporary Foreign Worker Program, said inspectors investigated a broad range of allegations."Inspections have become increasingly complex where an inspector is required to validate many allegations ranging from wages and international employment contracts to possible situations of mistreatment," the department wrote.A separate June 4 departmental briefing note said Ottawa has tightened the Temporary Foreign Worker Program in recent years to reduce employer reliance on foreign labour while strengthening oversight."The program has undergone significant changes in the past several years with a greater focus on more rigorous application assessments and employer inspections to reduce potential misuse," the memo stated.The department said the changes were designed to meet labour market demands "without undermining local employment opportunities."As unemployment began rising in late 2023, Ottawa introduced additional restrictions targeting lower-wage positions.The reforms reduced the maximum duration of low-wage work permits from 12 months to six months and lowered the cap on low-wage temporary foreign workers from 30% to 20% of an employer's workforce in sectors such as hospitality and food service..Employers applying to hire temporary foreign workers are also now required to demonstrate they attempted to recruit Canadians as well as foreign nationals already legally in Canada, including asylum seekers with valid work permits and displaced Ukrainians.The tightening comes as internal Immigration Department research suggests public attitudes toward immigration have become increasingly negative.According to the department's 2025 Annual Tracking Qualitative Research report, many participants believed Canada had admitted too many newcomers in recent years."Overall sentiment towards immigration tended to skew more negative than positive," the report said.Researchers also found respondents expressed relatively little concern that reducing immigration levels would negatively affect businesses dependent on foreign labour or smaller communities.The report said many participants who were skeptical of current immigration levels rejected arguments that reducing immigration would create broader economic challenges, saying many of those problems already existed despite high levels of immigration.
