Here's what I learned from an off-the-record conversation with someone very, very close to the temporary foreign workers program.
Aren’t temporary foreign workers brought in so companies can pay them less than what they would Canadians?
No, in fact, that’s a popular misconception. Sometimes, temporary foreign workers are actually paid more, or companies pay finders’ fees to third party recruiters to connect them with foreign employees.
Places like McDonalds abuse the temporary foreign workers program because they use it to solve their high employee turnover problem. Many young kids who get their first job at a fast food joint are not going to stay long, and restaurants spend a lot of time training, only to lose their employees shortly thereafter.
People brought in with the temporary foreign workers program, however, are stuck in the same job as long as they are in Canada, usually two years. During that time, they can only work for that one employer.
So the program becomes a way to secure a trapped labour force that will stay for at least two years flipping burgers. That's clearly not what it was created for.
