As election day in Newfoundland and Labrador approaches, a migrant rights advocate and a Memorial University researcher say political parties have yet to offer concrete plans to protect temporary foreign workers from exploitation and abuse in the province.

During the leaders’ debate earlier Wednesday evening, Liberal Leader John Hogan emphasized the critical role migrant workers play in the province, especially in rural communities.

“I think it’s absolutely a need to have more people here in this province. Our province has been shrinking for decades,” Hogan said while answering a question about how the Liberals plan to support immigrants and newcomers.

While temporary foreign workers are often described as “critical” when they are acknowledged, provincial parties have generally avoided committing to concrete measures that would protect their rights.  

When The Independent asked Hogan, PC Leader Tony Wakeham and NDP Leader Jim Dinn during a post debate media scrum what actions they would take to protect temporary foreign workers in the province, all agreed temporary foreign workers should be treated the same as other residents but none offered action items they would take to ensure worker safety.

“If you’re a temporary foreign worker, you should be treated the same as a worker, same working conditions for everybody, whether you’re working in a fish plant, restaurant, […] health services,” Hogan said. “So there’s no distinction for that.”

Wakeham said we “should not be discriminating because somebody is called ‘temporary’,” and that “we need to be able to make sure that they have the same wages and the same benefits as everyone else.”

Dinn was more specific about some of the problems he has heard temporary foreign workers face. “The first thing is making sure that we hold the employers accountable,” he said. “Workers who come here—in many cases they are looking to make a home here, then you’ve got to make sure that they’re not bought in some indentured servitude, as simple as that.”

Most workers coming to the country through the federally-administered Temporary Foreign Worker Program arrive here on a closed permit, meaning they can only work for the employer and the job listed on their permit.

Adi Khaitan, an organizer with the Migrant Action Centre, a Newfoundland and Labrador-based group advocating for migrant rights in the province, says they would love to see how candidates address specific injustices and what they will do specifically to assist migrants, rather than make broad statements. “I think migrants deserve a commitment.”

Closed permits deprive workers of the ability to move jobs if the employer is exploitative or abusive, such as withholding pay, physical, emotional or verbal abuse, excessive work hours or providing a lack of personal protective equipment. Applying to change a closed permit can take weeks or months, and many workers facing abuse may be afraid to take action. 

Dolores Mullings, a professor with Memorial University’s School of Social Work, says it isn’t uncommon for local politicians to ignore the systematic issues facing migrant labourers in the province. “None of them has done anything significant to address the plight of temporary foreign workers.”

During elections, candidates often focus on messaging that appeals to voters, Mullings says. Since temporary foreign workers cannot vote, their concerns may be overlooked. “[They] are not going to be at the top of the list of most people in this province.”

Temporary foreign workers in NL often work essential jobs such as healthcare aids, childcare providers and cleaning and maintenance staff. In communities with declining populations they help stabilize local populations and sustain the economy. Mullings says people can sometimes forget just how essential foreign labourers are. “What is more important than somebody who’s raising your children?”

Newfoundland and Labrador has an aging population, and without foreign workers and immigration, a shrinking workforce. The 2021 census from Statistics Canada found declines in 266 of the province’s 372 communities covered by the census compared to five years earlier.

Mullings’ research found that temporary foreign workers in remote areas of the province face additional challenges, including harsh and unpredictable weather they’re not used to, social isolation, language barriers, workplace discrimination, lack of access to healthcare and difficulty reaching government support services.

Human-first approach

Recent federal policy changes have created uncertainty for Canadians and politicians about when, what, and how to speak publicly about immigration, including the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, Mullings says.

Canada has introduced several changes to its immigration policies amid growing anti-immigrant sentiment from those blaming newcomers for rising unemployment rates and the lack of affordable housing. According to a Leger report for the Association for Canadian Studies, 62 per cent of the 1,580 respondents from Canada say the country is admitting too many immigrants. The survey took place in June of this year.

Then there is also the problem of how aware politicians and residents are of the contributions migrant workers make and the multitude of issues and abuse they may face, Mullings says, especially when they are not living in communities where migrant workers are most needed.

“Politicians in Labrador, for example, may have a better idea about the contributions of temporary foreign workers and the importance of this group of people,” Mullings said, referencing the large number of migrant workers in the mainland part of the province.

Mullings says to combat that negative perception of temporary foreign workers, leaders should move away from portraying them as “an economic commodity” used to fill labour and skill shortages. Instead, they should highlight the broader contributions the workers make to Canadian society.

The province’s role

The United Nations has referred to Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program as a “breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery” after gathering accounts of exploitation and abuse by employers. The report argues that the program’s legal and structural setup allows for such exploitation.

Similarly, Amnesty International has criticized the program, saying “labourers in the TFWP will be vulnerable to abuse as long as the closed work permit requirement and other harmful provisions remain.”

During Wednesday evening’s scrum, Hogan noted that the program is under federal jurisdiction but added that the province will “make sure that [foreign workers] protected.”

Khaitan says although the TFW program is federally administered, the province isn’t absolved of responsibility. “Human rights aren’t solely a federal responsibility, and the province has the power to bring about changes.”

In Newfoundland and Labrador, labourers are only eligible for the Medical Care Plan (MCP) while employed and have a valid work permit for 12 months. If they lose or leave their job, they lose access to public healthcare until they secure a new work permit and a job with an employer permitted to hire foreign workers.

During this period, workers also lose access to food banks as many in the province require a valid MCP for assistance.

“Migrants have had their rights held hostage and temporary workers are often at the forefront of that issue, whose rights come in exchange for compliance, defeating the very concept of human rights,” Khaitan says.

As part of the organization, Khaitan says they have heard of cases in which workers brought in with closed permits were denied or had their wages withheld.

“While working conditions are often sub-par, so is much else — a lot of it is provincial responsibility and a lot more is collaborative” between levels of government.