Man. to regulate foreign worker recruitment
By FBC staff
Manitoba's provincial government will consult on plans to regulate agencies that recruit temporary workers from other countries.
Labour Minister Nancy Allan announced plans Wednesday to consult with stakeholders on proposed changes to the provincial Employment Services Act. One of the proposals would require that all third-party recruiters of foreign workers be licensed by the province.
The province also proposes that such agencies will have to be members in good standing of either a law society in Canada or the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants.
The new law, if approved, would be the first of its kind in Canada and "a model for other jurisdictions," Allan said.
The legislation would also look to help employers get access to "legitimate and reliable" recruitment choices, she said.
While not specifically mentioned in the province's release, the move follows revelations earlier this year that over five dozen workers from China had been required to pay fees of up to C$11,500 each before coming to work at Maple Leaf Foods' hog plant at Brandon, Man.
The food company, which also recruits in Mexico and El Salvador, cut its ties to the immigration consulting firm that imported the workers and said it would explore other ways to recruit in China.
Maple Leaf said that while the workers did get some training for the fees paid, there was "no transparency" to the fees and the packer was unaware its new workers were carrying these heavy debts.
(A spokesman for the affected workers told reporters in January that the fees were demanded by a Chinese company, not the Canadian consultant.)
Almost 4,500 temporary foreign workers were employed in Manitoba in January this year, up from about 1,500 in 1997, the province said.
"We will continue to work with our federal (government) partners to better understand the arrival, location and numbers of temporary workers as well as identify, license and regulate agencies involved in the recruitment," Allan said in a release.
The province noted that the Employment Services Act hadn't been amended since 1987.
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