New Changes Worry Temporary Foreign Workers in Moncton

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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The members of Moncton’s Filipino community are feeling nervous over the latest crackdown on temporary foreign workers. The federal government has been recently making amendments aimed at making it harder and more expensive for companies to hire temporary foreign workers in order to fill in vacant job positions in Canada. Several changes were announced to the temporary foreign worker program in April, which implied the government’s intention to ensure that Canadians are a first priority at available jobs.

During a celebration of Asian culture at Moncton city hall on Monday, Franz Fabroa alleged that he feels threatened. He explained to have come from the Philippines almost two years ago, under the temporary foreign worker program, in order to work at a Subway restaurant. He mentioned that “at first I didn’t decide yet if I was staying here for long,” “but most of the people are really nice and after I decided to stay here for good, I want to become a resident here.” Fabroa expressed concerns over the recent changes Ottawa is making.

The Citizenship and Immigration Minister, Jason Kenney, gave a statement last week asserting that the temporary foreign worker program was aimed to fill in the jobs on a temporary basis and was never intended to displace Canadian workers. An active member of the Moncton Filipino Association, Betty De Asi, stated that the federal government shall focus on employers who aren’t following the rules, rather than foreign workers. She suggested that “maybe we can go and impose strict penalty to the employer if they don’t follow whatever they have in the contract, to regulate recruiters, not the foreign workers.”