By Amy Chen

Jason Kenney is the “greatest friend of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program” ever, according to a group of Temporary Foreign Worker Program supporters who endorsed the former federal employment minister for the leadership of the Alberta PC party.

“Jason Kenney convinced the sceptics of the program by making it clear that Canadian business would go under without hardworking temporary foreign workers, as Canadians were too lazy to even apply for jobs,” a post on Canadians Appreciating Temporary Foreign Workers Facebook page stated, referring to a statement Kenney made in parliament in when he was in Stephen Harper’s Cabinet.

“Kenney gave hundreds of thousands of migrant workers [an opportunity] to make a positive contribution to the economy,” the post read. “Businesses went from barely surviving to thriving.”

“A vote for Kenney is a vote for the temporary foreign worker program, and with the blood sweat and tears of those migrant workers, a more prosperous Alberta,” the group concluded in their statement.

While one group is endorsing Jason Kenney for his staunch support of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, many others are denouncing him for the very reason.

The advocacy group Canadians Against the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, who regularly hold rallies against the program, recently published a website kenneykillsjobs.ca mapping businesses approved to hire migrant workers by Employment and Social Development Canada, Kenney’s former department.

“Even as Albertans were being laid off due to the oil price slump, Kenney’s department approved bulk LMIAs from oil and gas companies, sometimes allowing them to bring hundreds of temporary foreign workers at once,” the post announcing the site on the group’s Facebook page read. “No only was Kenney’s assault killing jobs, as unemployment soared, so did the suicide rates in Alberta.”

“Kenney killed Albertans by killing our jobs,” the group concluded.