By Rohana Rezel

The number of temporary foreign workers in Canada has increased by nearly 300 per cent to over 1.25 million since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took office, according to data obtained from Canada’s immigration department.

The number of valid work permit holders for work purposes on December 31 rose from 323,980 in 2015 to 1,270,360 in 2023 representing a 295 per cent increase.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal took over the reigns of power from Stephen Harper’s Conservatives in November 2015.

Temporary foreign workers now account for 6.25 per cent of Canada’s workforce, which stood at 20,313,000 in December 2023.^[1]Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey, December 2023 Table 14-10-0287-01 https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/240105/dq240105a-eng.htm

1,081,780, or 85 per cent, of the workers at the end of 2023 were in Canada under the International Mobility Program^[2]Temporary Residents: Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) and International Mobility Program (IMP) Work Permit Holders – Monthly IRCC Updates (Record ID: bed6c44f-1cc7-47c2-9483-9b467c3c0f97), which allows an employer to hire a temporary foreign worker without having to submit a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) request.

The workers under IMP include spouses of temporary residents, and those on an intra-company transfer visa – a program that has been abused by outsourcing companies to bring in cheap offshore IT staff at the expense of local workers.

Only 15 per cent, or 188,580, of the workers in Canada were under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, which requires an employer to obtain an LMIA to hire a temporary foreign worker^[3]Temporary Residents: Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) and International Mobility Program (IMP) Work Permit Holders – Monthly IRCC Updates (Record ID: 8d4c4240-88ea-421d-b80d-6cc6a3d28044).

502,885 temporary foreign workers were based in Ontario, while 200,665 worked in British Columbia.

Year	IMP	TFWP
2000	44,140	22,470
2001	46,880	26,130
2002	50,390	29,220
2003	54,320	33,955
2004	64,465	37,150
2005	73,760	43,320
2006	83,570	53,925
2007	92,880	78,225
2008	115,690	110,505
2009	139,810	112,475
2010	158,830	92,070
2011	197,240	81,525
2012	225,925	86,505
2013	253,880	103,910
2014	269,090	93,745
2015	261,600	60,000
2016	302,280	51,070
2017	336,000	46,050
2018	380,950	56,030
2019	453,250	73,355
2020	457,855	76,405
2021	430,200	81,435
2022	648,290	119,235
2023	1,081,780	188,580

Contact the Author

You can reach Rohana Rezel at [email protected]. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook and Github.