Undocumented migrants working in construction to get legal status in Canada
The federal government is planning to launch a new immigration program that would grant legal status to thousands of undocumented migrants working in construction, in an effort to address a labour shortage that unions and associations say is hamstringing the sector.
Details remain scant, but Immigration Minister Marc Miller said the government would reserve space for 6,000 undocumented workers across the country to be legalized. Many of them came to Canada legally, but their temporary work visas have expired.
The program builds off a pilot program launched in 2020 that provided a route to permanent residency for out-of-status construction workers who resided in the Greater Toronto Area.
“We know that some workers who came here legally have continued to work after their status has expired,” Mr. Miller said at a news conference in Woodbridge, Ont. “It would be shooting ourselves in the foot to ask them to leave when they have been contributing to Canada.”
The program, according to Mr. Miller, aims to keep undocumented migrants who are already living and working in Canada in the construction sector. It is unclear if it will offer these workers a direct pathway to permanent residency or if they will remain temporary residents with special work permits.
Construction associations and unions have long been lobbying Ottawa to remove immigration barriers that make it hard for foreign construction workers to obtain permanent residency. Currently, foreign workers in skilled trades can migrate to Canada using multiple pathways, including the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and the Express Entry points system.
The TFW program has been plagued with problems – poor housing for workers, exploitative employer behaviour, wage suppression – that construction unions say ultimately hamper the growth of a permanent skilled-trades work force.
Canada’s Building Trades Unions (CBTU), which represents more than 600,000 workers, has petitioned the government to amend the program so that unions can co-sponsor foreign workers along with employers and keep a close eye on their treatment.
The Express Entry system for skilled tradespeople requires applicants to have a Canadian certification in the line of construction work they intend to pursue, immediately disqualifying foreign construction workers. Applicants who have a Canadian college or university degree are awarded more points in the system, making it more likely that they will be granted permanent residency.
“Our system is not set up to bring in the people we need to work in construction because it does not match industry skills and needs appropriately and has a bias for those who may not have completed higher education,” said Rodrigue Gilbert, president of the Canadian Construction Association. The CCA estimates that the construction industry is facing a shortage of 85,500 workers over the next 10 years.
Mr. Miller said an additional 14,000 foreign workers could be brought into Canada to fill the needs of the construction sector, especially in the building of residential homes. But he did not specify if these workers would enter through the TFW program.
Construction sector employers tend to find the requirements of the TFW program cumbersome, according to Andrew Pariser, vice-president of the Residential Construction Council of Ontario (RESCON), one of the industry groups advocating for an easier path to permanent residency for foreign workers. The program requires employers to submit a labour market impact assessment (LMIA) document that attests to why the employer is unable to fill a job with a domestic worker. “It can take two to three months to obtain an LMIA, in which time the needs of the employer might have changed because construction is unpredictable,” he said.
Mr. Pariser also said that matching a single employer with a single worker for a period of a few years – the TFW program grants one- or two-year work permits – does not match the reality of the construction sector, which leans heavily on subcontractors who typically perform piecemeal jobs. “The employer-employee relationship is often short-term or transitory, and workers may have multiple employers over the course of a year. The current immigration system is not set up to facilitate that,” he said.
Friday’s announcement detailed the establishment of a tripartite advisory council led by major construction unions, with participation from industry associations and the federal government to identify specific on-the-ground labour needs. The council, according to Mr. Miller, will advise the government on ways to bring in and retain foreign construction workers. Approximately 30 per cent of construction workers across Canada are unionized, according to data from CBTU.
Mr. Miller also noted that, effective Friday, he is removing a study permit requirement for foreign apprentices in construction programs in order to encourage more recent migrants to enroll in these programs, even if they do not have the necessary paperwork.
Syed Hussan, the executive director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, described the announcement as a “step in the right direction,” even though it is “piecemeal in nature.”
“Our stance is the same: We call for the program to be as inclusive as possible and for the regularization of all undocumented people,” he said.
This article was first reported by The Globe and Mail
