Auditor general finds oversight, enforcement problems of foreign worker program
OTTAWA — Canada’s temporary foreign workers program is rife with oversight problems that appear to have allowed lower-paid international workers to take jobs that out-of-work Canadians could fill, the federal auditor general says.
Michael Ferguson’s examination of the controversial program, part of a battery of spring audits tabled Tuesday, details a litany of problems.
Employers hired temporary foreign workers without first proving they had exhausted all options with the domestic workforce, Ferguson found. At times, requests for temporary help were approved for head-scratching reasons that officials didn’t challenge.
Officials didn’t use government data on Canada’s labour market that could have helped to ensure employers were being truthful in their applications, the report says. Nor did officials effectively crack down on companies that were found to have run afoul of the rules.