Surrey Board of Trade raises concerns over temporary foreign workers cap

The federal government announced Wednesday it’s putting a 10 per cent cap on the proportion of the workforce an employer can fill with temporary foreign workers, and the Surrey Board of Trade (SBOT) is raising concerns as to how this announcement will impact the local immigrant population.

Jasroop Gosal, policy and research manager at the SBOT, says immigrants are going to struggle to afford to live in Canada as a result of this change.

“We have a large immigrant population in Surrey,” he said.

“A lot of these immigrants are newcomers and they have utilized the LMIA [Labour Market Impact Assessment] and Temporary Foreign Workers Program to find jobs and employment.”

He says cities like Surrey need to be viewed as a micro-economy and treated uniquely to minimize the impact of this federal change.

“We are so big and diverse as a population,” Gosal said.

“We need to have specialized legislation, specialized policy for our community.”

Immigration lawyer Kuldip Chaggar says changes like these are negatively impacting Canadian immigration.

“People are choosing to go elsewhere,” Chaggar said.

“That’s not a good thing, because we are losing good, qualified candidates to other countries.”

He says immigrant families and young people will continue to struggle in Canada until a policy is put in place that reflects the makeup of communities in cities like Surrey.

“Canada is a growing country and what it’s saying to foreign workers is we’ll pick and choose when we want you,” Chaggar said.

“Eventually foreign workers are going to say there are other opportunities in the world, and that’s where they’re going.”