Why is Canadian PM Mark Carney planning to reset the foreign worker programme?
Canada ’s sprawling Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), once an emergency lever to plug short-term labour gaps, is on the verge of being re-engineered. In his address to the Liberal caucus in Edmonton, Prime Minister Mark Carney has recently signalled a shift to a ‘focused approach’—a bureaucratic phrase loaded with political urgency. It’s not about scrapping the programme but surgically narrowing it: Concentrating TFWP inflows only into sectors and regions where they are indispensable.
This pivot is not ideological. It is arithmetic. Canada is confronting a two-headed crisis—soaring housing costs and rising unemployment—while hosting one of the fastest-growing populations in the developed world. In that context, Carney’s move is not so much a reform as an attempt to prevent systemic fracture.
The housing overhang: Too few roofs, too many rentsHousing is the quiet detonator in this rethink. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) estimates that, to restore pre-2004 affordability, Canada must add 5.8 million homes by 2030—over and above current pipelines—translating into roughly 430,000 to 480,000 new units a year, according to CMHC’s modelling. Today’s pace is nowhere close: The Fraser Institute, a Canadian policy think-tank, reports housing starts (new-home construction starts) fell to 245,367 in 2024 from 271,198 in 2021. The demand side is just as blunt: Statistics Canada , the national data agency, finds that more than one in five households now lives in unaffordable shelter, defined as spending over 30% of income on housing. Add to this the demographic shove: Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada data show the population jumped 3.2% in 2023—the fastest since 1957—with 98% of that growth driven by immigration. The outcome writes itself: Public services strain, transit groans, and rentals cost like scarce oxygen. Carney’s logic follows the arithmetic: If supply cannot catch up soon enough, Ottawa must temper demand at the intake valve, particularly among temporary workers who typically land in the very urban markets where supply is tightest.
The labour paradox: High joblessness amid labour shortagesUnemployment is the silent fault line in this calculus. Statistics Canada reports that the national jobless rate climbed to 7.1% in August 2025 from 6.2% a year earlier—a headline figure that hides stark regional rifts. Beneath the average lie sharp contrasts: Newfoundland & Labrador hovers at 10.7%, Alberta at 8.4%, while British Columbia and Quebec sit closer to 6.2% and 6.0% respectively, as per StatsCan’s labour tables. Statistics Canada notes youth unemployment rose to 14.5% for ages 15–24, deepening the regional fractures.
Well, importing low-wage foreign labour into provinces with double-digit local joblessness risks both economic distortion and political backlash. Carney’s “focused approach” tries to pre-empt precisely that: Keep pathways open in sectors with genuine shortages—healthcare, agriculture, aged care—while tightening the taps wherever domestic slack pools.
The political undercurrentCarney’s push for a ‘focused approach’ isn’t only about housing shortage and unemployment. Under rising political heat and voter angst, and with priority sectors short of skills, the fix is clear: Tighten intake, lift standards, and match workers to real gaps—not the reverse.
Against this backdrop, the Conservative case against the current TFWP has coalesced across federal and provincial voices. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre took to X (formerly Twitter) to argue that the Liberal government under PM Carney pledged to limit Temporary Foreign Workers to 82,000 in 2025 but, by mid-year, the tally had already climbed to roughly 105,000. He links this to what he calls the weakest youth employment in nearly three decades, claiming the policy is squeezing wages and jobs for young Canadians.
According to Global News, Poilievre said recently, “It’s time to take decisive action to protect our youth and workers,” Poilievre said, with a press release urging the government to “immediately stop issuing new TFW permits, and end this wage-suppressing, opportunity-stealing program.” “Under this urgently-needed plan, the temporary foreign worker program would be permanently abolished with a separate, standalone program for legitimately difficult-to-fill agricultural labour,” Poilievre said.
Echoing the same concern from within the caucus, Rempel Garner, a Conservative Member of Parliament from Alberta, argues that joblessness among young Canadians is exploding in conjunction with a rise in Temporary Foreign Worker permits. She warns that, unless addressed, this trend may leave a lasting mark—erasing entry-level job opportunities and damaging future career prospects.
Taking the argument to the provincial stage, allied voices have pushed for a sweeping reset rather than incremental tweaks. In his X post, John Rustad, the BC Conservative leader, says he now backs Pierre Poilievre’s plan to abolish the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, arguing that regular Canadian jobs should be filled by Canadians and that Ottawa should create a separate, standalone stream for agriculture to address farmers’ needs.
Focus, not fearCarney’s ‘focused approach’ is best read as a sorting exercise, not a slammed door. Housing is scarce in some cities, jobs are soft in others, and the campaign season turns up the volume. The fix is to steer temporary workers toward the places and roles that genuinely need them—agriculture, healthcare, construction—while easing pressure where rents and joblessness already bite. That means clearer signals, steadier rules, and faster course-corrections when the data shifts. If Ottawa keeps the lens tight and the numbers public, Canada stays open and fair—and the temperature comes down on rents, on resentment, and on politics.
This pivot is not ideological. It is arithmetic. Canada is confronting a two-headed crisis—soaring housing costs and rising unemployment—while hosting one of the fastest-growing populations in the developed world. In that context, Carney’s move is not so much a reform as an attempt to prevent systemic fracture.
The housing overhang: Too few roofs, too many rentsHousing is the quiet detonator in this rethink. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) estimates that, to restore pre-2004 affordability, Canada must add 5.8 million homes by 2030—over and above current pipelines—translating into roughly 430,000 to 480,000 new units a year, according to CMHC’s modelling. Today’s pace is nowhere close: The Fraser Institute, a Canadian policy think-tank, reports housing starts (new-home construction starts) fell to 245,367 in 2024 from 271,198 in 2021. The demand side is just as blunt: Statistics Canada , the national data agency, finds that more than one in five households now lives in unaffordable shelter, defined as spending over 30% of income on housing. Add to this the demographic shove: Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada data show the population jumped 3.2% in 2023—the fastest since 1957—with 98% of that growth driven by immigration. The outcome writes itself: Public services strain, transit groans, and rentals cost like scarce oxygen. Carney’s logic follows the arithmetic: If supply cannot catch up soon enough, Ottawa must temper demand at the intake valve, particularly among temporary workers who typically land in the very urban markets where supply is tightest.
The labour paradox: High joblessness amid labour shortagesUnemployment is the silent fault line in this calculus. Statistics Canada reports that the national jobless rate climbed to 7.1% in August 2025 from 6.2% a year earlier—a headline figure that hides stark regional rifts. Beneath the average lie sharp contrasts: Newfoundland & Labrador hovers at 10.7%, Alberta at 8.4%, while British Columbia and Quebec sit closer to 6.2% and 6.0% respectively, as per StatsCan’s labour tables. Statistics Canada notes youth unemployment rose to 14.5% for ages 15–24, deepening the regional fractures.
Well, importing low-wage foreign labour into provinces with double-digit local joblessness risks both economic distortion and political backlash. Carney’s “focused approach” tries to pre-empt precisely that: Keep pathways open in sectors with genuine shortages—healthcare, agriculture, aged care—while tightening the taps wherever domestic slack pools.
The political undercurrentCarney’s push for a ‘focused approach’ isn’t only about housing shortage and unemployment. Under rising political heat and voter angst, and with priority sectors short of skills, the fix is clear: Tighten intake, lift standards, and match workers to real gaps—not the reverse.
Against this backdrop, the Conservative case against the current TFWP has coalesced across federal and provincial voices. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre took to X (formerly Twitter) to argue that the Liberal government under PM Carney pledged to limit Temporary Foreign Workers to 82,000 in 2025 but, by mid-year, the tally had already climbed to roughly 105,000. He links this to what he calls the weakest youth employment in nearly three decades, claiming the policy is squeezing wages and jobs for young Canadians.
According to Global News, Poilievre said recently, “It’s time to take decisive action to protect our youth and workers,” Poilievre said, with a press release urging the government to “immediately stop issuing new TFW permits, and end this wage-suppressing, opportunity-stealing program.” “Under this urgently-needed plan, the temporary foreign worker program would be permanently abolished with a separate, standalone program for legitimately difficult-to-fill agricultural labour,” Poilievre said.
Echoing the same concern from within the caucus, Rempel Garner, a Conservative Member of Parliament from Alberta, argues that joblessness among young Canadians is exploding in conjunction with a rise in Temporary Foreign Worker permits. She warns that, unless addressed, this trend may leave a lasting mark—erasing entry-level job opportunities and damaging future career prospects.
Taking the argument to the provincial stage, allied voices have pushed for a sweeping reset rather than incremental tweaks. In his X post, John Rustad, the BC Conservative leader, says he now backs Pierre Poilievre’s plan to abolish the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, arguing that regular Canadian jobs should be filled by Canadians and that Ottawa should create a separate, standalone stream for agriculture to address farmers’ needs.
Focus, not fearCarney’s ‘focused approach’ is best read as a sorting exercise, not a slammed door. Housing is scarce in some cities, jobs are soft in others, and the campaign season turns up the volume. The fix is to steer temporary workers toward the places and roles that genuinely need them—agriculture, healthcare, construction—while easing pressure where rents and joblessness already bite. That means clearer signals, steadier rules, and faster course-corrections when the data shifts. If Ottawa keeps the lens tight and the numbers public, Canada stays open and fair—and the temperature comes down on rents, on resentment, and on politics.
Next Story