Mexican and Guatemalan workers pick strawberries at a strawberry farm in Pont Rouge, Que., in August, 2021.Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press
A number of provinces are criticizing Ottawa’s move to expand the Temporary Foreign Worker Program for rural employers, saying they were not consulted in advance of the decision and they are still assessing whether they want to participate in it.
Last Friday, the federal government introduced new rules that would allow employers in rural regions to hire up to 15 per cent of their staff as low-wage workers from the TFWP, an increase from 10 per cent. For rural employers to be eligible, provinces and territories will have to opt into the program.
But major provinces, including British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario, all said they were still deciding whether to participate ahead of the program’s launch on April 1.
“As B.C. was not consulted prior to the announcement of federal policy change, we need to consider it carefully and do analysis of the federal announcement before deciding whether or not the province will opt in,” a spokesperson at B.C.’s Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills said in an e-mail to The Globe and Mail. The ministry manages the province’s immigration portfolio.
Ottawa to allow more hiring of low-wage temporary foreign workers in rural areas
At a press conference on Tuesday, B.C. Premier David Eby – who was asked by a reporter about the TFW program changes – said that he was not a “fan” of the program because it did not offer workers a clear pathway to citizenship. “The idea that the solution to the challenges we face is an expansion of this program is, frankly, a bit frustrating,” he said.
Provinces have long called for the federal government to increase the allocation of spots for individual provincial nominee programs, immigration pathways that allow provinces to choose candidates with specific work experience needed for their local economies.
The TFW and provincial nominee programs are two separate immigration pathways.
And provinces such as B.C. and Alberta have lobbied the federal government for years to exercise greater control over immigration, much like how Quebec handles its own immigration selection.
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Ottawa slashed the number of spots allocated for provincial nominee programs in 2025 by about 50 per cent, in line with overall tightening of immigration, but has since increased them. Ontario, for example, will get approximately 14,100 spots this year – meaning that it can provide a permanent residency pathway for them based on their occupation. By comparison, last year it got 10,750 spots and in 2024 it had 21,500. The province is still evaluating participation in rural expansion of the TFW program.
Hunter Baril, an Alberta government spokesperson, told The Globe that broad increases to the TFW program were not helpful, and what the province needed was targeted placements of people who enter through the provincial nominee program. “The federal government is again demonstrating a lack of understanding when it comes to immigration,” he said. Alberta has not made an official decision on the program.
The expansion of the current TFW cap, according to Ottawa, is a temporary measure to help alleviate acute labour shortages in certain rural regions with low unemployment rates. It will last from April 1, 2026, to March 31, 2027.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business, a non-profit which represents more than 103,000 members, is among the groups that have lobbied hard for more temporary foreign workers to be brought into the country. They argue that rural employers in particular are struggling with staffing issues because Canadians are unwilling to move to remote regions for work.
In statements to The Globe, spokespeople from the governments of Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador said they were supportive of expanding the TFW program for rural employers and plan to participate in it.