British Columbia Premier David Eby is calling on the federal government to make major changes to the temporary foreign worker (TFW) program — or to scrap it outright.
Eby made the comments Thursday, at his first public appearance after a month break over the summer.
“The temporary foreign worker program is not working. It should be cancelled or significantly reformed,” Eby said.
“Here in British Columbia, we see an unacceptably high level of unemployment among young people, which has been linked both to the international student visa program as well as the temporary foreign worker program.”
Eby also cited allegations of the fraudulent sale of labour market impact assessments, documents that show a Canadian worker isn’t available for the job they’re offering when hiring a foreign worker.
Any reform of the program must ensure that farmers and other sectors that legitimately need temporary labour are accommodated, Eby said.
“British Columbia is willing to convene provinces that are interested in this issue, to have a serious, grown-up conversation about immigration in Canada, the impact that it’s having on critical infrastructure,” Eby said.
Earlier Thursday, Statistics Canada published data showing an alarming rise in youth unemployment, with overall youth unemployment rising from 10 per cent in 2022 to 14 per cent in mid-2025.
Nearly one in five Canadian teens want to work but cannot find any jobs, the report noted.
The NDP premier’s comments have made him an unlikely ally with federal Conservative Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre on the issue.
On Wednesday, Poilievre also called for an end to the “wage-suppressing, opportunity-stealing program,” and for its replacement with a separate standalone program for agricultural labour.
BC Conservative Opposition Leader John Rustad, however, warned that scrapping the temporary foreign worker program would crush the province’s tourism and agriculture industries.
The province, he said, should take the matter into its own hands.
“The immigration system was broken by Ottawa and we need a made in B.C. approach so we can take over immigration.”
Eby’s comments also drew backlash from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, which said they were “deeply misguided and put other Canadians’ jobs at risk.”
CFIB director of legislative affairs for B.C. Ryan Mitton said adjustments to the program made sense, but cancelling it put politics before smart policy.
“For many small businesses in B.C., especially in rural and remote areas, the TFW Program is a last resort that keeps the doors open, protects Canadian jobs and fills gaps where no local workers are available,” Mitton said.
Prime Minister Mark Carney says Ottawa will review the program, but believes it still has a role to play.
Federal data shows Canada set a target to admit 82,000 new arrivals through the temporary foreign worker program this year.
Last year, the federal government announced it was introducing restrictions to the program, and aims to cut the portion of TFWs in Canada from 6.5 per cent of the population to under five per cent by next year.
The changes will reject low-wage TFW applications in regions where unemployment exceeds six per cent, reduce the maximum duration of TFW employment from two years to one, and cap the number of employees businesses can draw from the low-wage stream at 10 per cent of their workforce.
–with files from Uday Rana