Written Submission: Study on the impact of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) on the Canadian labour market and access to employment for local citizens.

Chair & Committee Members
Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities (HUMA)
Sixth Floor, 131 Queen Street
House of Commons
Ottawa ON K1A 0A6
E-mail: HUMA@parl.gc.ca

Dear Committee Chair Morrissey & Committee Members:

Study on the impact of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) on the Canadian labour market and access to employment for local citizens.

Northern Ontario’s wealth of critical minerals and natural resources has the potential to drive economic growth across Canada and is essential to unlocking a prosperous future for Ontario. Realizing this potential is dependent on having a strong workforce—both the skilled talent needed to build and operate new mines and industries, and the low- and semi-skilled workers essential to sustaining the community services that underpin regional success.

Labour shortages are especially acute in Northern and rural regions where population growth remains limited. Northern Ontario specifically is experiencing a significant demographic shift marked by population decline driven by natural aging, low fertility rates, a rising life expectancy and an increase of out-migration. Population and migration trends to 2021, suggest that Northern Ontario needs 100,000 newcomers by 2041 in order to sustain current population levels and meet labour market demands

Governments at all levels have acknowledged the challenges facing Northern Ontario and have introduced targeted programs to help address them. The federal Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (RNIP) and the Rural Community Immigration Pilot (RCIP) have already proven highly effective, bringing 2,079 newcomers to Northwestern Ontario by the end of 2025. Likewise, Ontario’s Immigrant Nominee Program through the Rural Economic Development through Immigration (REDI) pilot successfully filled all 200 spots allocated to the Thunder Bay district in 2025.

Despite these important efforts, employers in Thunder Bay and across Northern Ontario continue to identify labour shortages as one of their most urgent challenges. The Temporary Foreign Worker Program remains a critical tool, helping businesses fill essential low- and semi skilled positions needed to maintain operations and meet community demand.

While unemployment rates are rising in many urban jurisdictions, Thunder Bay CMA is not following that trend with the current unemployment rate dropping to 4.6% in January 2026 compared with the national rate of 6.8% It is in this context that we offer the following recommendations relating to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program to address the needs of Northern Ontario businesses:

1. We support the development of the Canadian International Workforce Program (CIWP), a proposed new immigration program to support employers looking to fill low-skilled and labourer positions with two distinct streams:
   a. A temporary stream that reflects seasonal and temporary low-skilled jobs
   This stream would be for workers to come to Canada temporarily for strictly seasonal, low-skilled jobs. These workers come to Canada at a certain time during the year and return home when the season finishes.

b. A stream for low-skilled, year-round jobs
These jobs are not temporary nor seasonal in nature. They are in occupations that are consistently vacant year over year and known jobs that Canadians and Permanent Residents do not apply for. Given that no immigration program exists for this circumstance, employers have patched together a system of TFW’s getting Permanent Residency via the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP). This new stream would include better integration of pathways to permanent residence for foreign workers.

2. We are concerned that the broad scope of the current Temporary Foreign Worker Program—covering multiple streams with very different objectives—has contributed to unfair negative perceptions of successful and essential streams when only a small number are misused or underperforming. To address this, we recommend greater differentiation between program streams.
   
3. We encourage the Government to examine models used by other countries, which use what could be described as “geographically closed work permits” that allow an employee to transfer to a different vetted employer while maintaining status continuity. This approach avoids binding a worker to a single employer—a relationship that may ultimately be unsuitable for either party. At the same time, a geographic restriction ensures that newcomers demonstrate a genuine commitment to the community they have chosen to call home.
   
4. The 2026–2028 Immigration Levels Plan reduces new temporary admissions from 673,650 in 2025 to 385,000 in 2026. To ensure this reduction does not worsen chronic population shortages in rural and remote regions, we urge the Government to apply these cuts only to urban areas. Targeting reductions in this way would help protect the vitality and sustainability of communities that rely on temporary immigration to maintain essential services and economic activity.
   
5. Recent changes to LMIA review processes indicate that low wage positions in Census Metropolitan Areas with unemployment rates of 6% or higher will no longer be processed. To reduce the costly and time consuming LMIA burden on employers, we recommend that LMIA requirements be removed for CMAs with unemployment rates below 6%. This targeted approach would streamline hiring where labour shortages are most acute while maintaining safeguards in higher unemployment regions.
   
6. Ensure that IRCC has sufficient staffing levels to efficiently and effectively review and process permanent resident and work permit applications. Strengthening capacity in this way would reduce backlogs, improve service standards, and provide greater certainty for employers and applicants alike.

Thank you for your consideration of our recommendations.

Sincerely,

Charla Robinson
President
Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce

Organization description
The Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce represents nearly 800 Member companies with over 20,000 employees in the Thunder Bay area. Our Chamber is a voluntary, Member-driven organization of individuals and businesses working together to advance the commercial, financial, and civic interests of our community. Whether we’re pooling resources to offer Member learning opportunities, raising our voices together on a policy issue or facilitating connections between members of our business community, we know that businesses that work together are stronger.