The federal government has suspended the use of the temporary foreign worker program for the food service industry, pending investigation into alleged abuses of the system by restaurants in the country.
Yorkton-Melville MP Gary Breitkreuz says that for the time being the measure will be limited to the food services sector, and will be in place until an investigation into the abuses is complete. He says that if any businesses are found to have abused the system, especially in regards to recruiting local employees there will be very serious consequences.
A recent case in the area has been making headlines. A restaurant employer in Weyburn has been accused of replacing long-time local employees with temporary foreign workers, and Breitkreuz says while this did initially prompt the investigation, it also revealed that the abuses of the system appeared to be more widespread than initially thought. Breitkreuz says that is why a closer look is necessary to see what is happening within the food services industry and how the program needs to change to prevent any further abuses.
"We've got to let the investigation take place and take it from there, at this point I wouldn't be able to predict what's going to happen."
The program is still necessary, says Breitkreuz. He says it's still necessary in the province and the country. He notes that he believes it will still be heavily used by the agriculture industry, for example, and that the goal right now is to iron out the glitches with the food services rules so abuses of the system can no longer take place.
"This program was just to be for employers who just could not find anybody locally in order to fill the positions. It was not supposed to be an abuse of the labor market, where they could pay less to those that came in. I think there was evidence that was happening, and we had to put a hold on it."
He says one of the things that may need to happen is closer monitoring of applications to ensure that abuses cannot take place into the future.
He notes that if the charges are true, the temporary foreign workers themselves are also among the victims, as if the charges are true they have been taken advantage of as well. It has also put the people on the waiting list to join the program on hold until they know what is going on.
That said, Breitkreuz says the program has been a valuable one, especially for agriculture and other sectors of the economy, and is optimistic that it can be fixed after the required investigations take place, and serve it's purpose of filling hard to recruit for positions.
"I think it's a program that has worked in a lot of sectors, and it's unfortunate that the abuse of it affects all those that really need it."
