Canada will be forced to grant work permits to an unlimited number of temporary foreign workers who are nationals of the other member countries under the terms of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, according to the final text of the deal released today.
The Canadian government will also not be able to impose any tests or certification as conditions of granting entry to Canada to work for the temporary foreign workers.
Section 12-A. Canada Temporary Entry for Business Persons states:
Canada shall grant temporary entry and provide a work permit or work authorization to Professionals and Technicians and will not:
(a) require labour certification tests or other procedures of similar intent as a condition for temporary entry; or
(b) impose or maintain any numerical restriction relating to temporary entry.
The government will also be forced to issue work permits to spouses of the TFWs coming under the TPP.
Canada shall grant temporary entry and provide a work permit or work authorization to spouses of Professionals and Technicians of another Party where that Party has also made a commitment in its schedule for spouses of Professionals and Technicians, and will not:
(a) require labour certification tests or other procedures of similar intent as a condition for temporary entry; or
(b) impose or maintain any numerical restriction relating to temporary entry.
Labour rights activists and experts had earlier speculated that TPP would open the floodgates to the TFW program.
“The provisions could be problematic for how we govern the use of temporary foreign workers,” CBC commentator Armine Yalnizyan said last month. “You remember the RBC example? where a multinational brought in temporary foreign workers to learn how to do the job properly so they could take the job to India and eventually displacing workers.”
“We want the temporary foreign worker program to show that these transfers are not displacing Canadian workers,” she added. “But that this is not what we are talking about in this trade deal.”
The final text of the TPP is much worse than expected, according to the Canadian Workers Advocacy Group.
“Prohibiting the government from attaching any form of testing or certification as a condition to entry would see many unskilled foreign workers taking up skilled positions,” the organization stated in an email. “Not only will wee see wages for skilled workers plunge as a result, but unskilled workers doing skilled trades or engineering work also puts Canadian lives in jeopardy.”
“If Mr. Trudeau cared one bit about Canada and Canadians, he would tear up this treaty,” the group concluded.
