Temporary foreign workers work through a vineyard in West Kelowna, B.C., on May 16, 2024.Aaron Hemens/The Globe and Mail
Ottawa is introducing new rules that will allow employers in rural regions to hire more low-wage workers through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.
Rural employers will be allowed to staff up to 15 per cent of their work force with low-wage temporary foreign workers, an increase from 10 per cent, the federal government announced Friday. The expansion will last from April 1, 2026, to March 31, 2027.
The announcement comes during a tough period for job seekers, driven by economic uncertainty posed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada and other countries.
On Friday, Statistics Canada reported that the country lost 83,900 jobs in February and the unemployment rate rose to 6.7 per cent from 6.5 per cent in January. Youth unemployment is also hovering at its highest rate in years, at more than 14 per cent.
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The TFWP is a critical immigration stream in Canada that allows employers to hire mostly low-wage foreign workers on a temporary basis in sectors where the government determines there is a shortage of domestic labour.
Currently, businesses can staff no more than 10 per cent of their work force with temporary foreign workers through the program’s low-wage stream. But in certain sectors that struggle with chronic labour shortages, such as health care, construction and food processing, businesses are allowed to staff 20 per cent of their work force.
Friday’s announcement was made jointly by Employment and Social Development Canada – the ministry that administers the TFWP – and the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario.
According to the government, the changes to the program were made because some rural communities have continued to face “acute labour shortages due to low unemployment rates” and “ongoing difficulties attracting, recruiting and retaining workers.”
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ESDC did not immediately respond to queries from The Globe and Mail about which regions of the country fall under the definition of “rural” and thus would be allowed to increase the share of foreign workers under the new rules.
Provinces and territories can choose to opt into the program, according to the government, and the new measures can be implemented within two weeks of a positive request from a province or territory.
Business lobby groups, including the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, have been critical of the government’s 10-per-cent cap on foreign workers, arguing that many small-business employers in rural and remote areas have long struggled with staffing issues.
The TFW program has also been heavily criticized by labour groups and political parties for its design: Workers who enter Canada under the program obtain a closed work permit, which ties them to a single employer and prevents them from leaving their jobs and finding other work if they suffer mistreatment.
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Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre has repeatedly called for the program to be abolished, and a separate standalone program be created to fill agricultural positions with foreign labour. Currently, employers in the agricultural sector are not subject to a cap on foreign workers.
Despite the TFW expansion, the federal government is trying to curtail the ranks of temporary residents in the country, after a period of historically strong growth between 2022 and 2024.
As of Oct. 1, 2025, there were 2.85 million temporary residents in Canada, or 6.8 per cent of the total population. Ottawa’s goal is to reduce that share to 5 per cent by 2027.
At the end of 2025, there were roughly 220,000 workers with TFWP permits in Canada, or about 1 per cent of the domestic work force, according to the federal immigration department.