THUNDER BAY — The minister holding Canada’s jobs and families portfolio fired back at the federal opposition leader’s claim that immigration — specifically the temporary foreign worker program — is to blame for rising unemployment.
In a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney dated Sept. 7 and about a week in advance of Parliament returning for the fall session, Pierre Poilievre outlined areas he said where the country, under the current Liberal government, is in “crisis,” including cost of living, job losses, crime and immigration.
“You are on track to allow the largest number of temporary foreign workers in history, while youth jobs numbers are their worst in 30 years,” said the letter, which was posted to Poilievre’s social media accounts, including Facebook and X (formerly Twitter). It also called immigration levels “out-of-control,” and blamed that — along with “high taxes,” “red tape,” and “anti-development laws” — for current jobs numbers.
The national unemployment rate rose to 7.1 per cent in August, according to Statistics Canada.
Speaking at a FedNor funding announcement in Thunder Bay on Monday, Hajdu — also the MP for Thunder Bay-Superior North — called it “a nasty narrative” that’s “not very helpful for businesses or for people.”
“I just want to call out the opposition for how they’re driving a conversation around immigration that’s actually pitting us against each other — we can’t do that now,” she said in her opening remarks.
“This is the time for Canadians to pull together,” Hajdu continued. “We can have difficult conversations, and we have been having difficult conversations, as you know, about levels and how many people we need to keep our economy strong.”
“But if people are asking us to be pitted against each other, we will fail on the most important project of our lifetime, and that is to strengthen Canada and to protect Canada in this very turbulent … economic time.”
Speaking to reporters after the announcement, which centred around about $3.5 million in FedNor funding for a number of initiatives across northern Ontario, Hajdu took particular issue with blaming the temporary foreign worker program — a specific immigration stream that “allows Canadian employers to hire foreign workers to fill temporary jobs when qualified Canadians are not available,” according to the program’s website.
The initiative “represents less than one percent of our workforce in our country,” Hajdu said, adding that there are numerous streams by which people from other countries can apply to work and live in Canada — both on temporary and permanent bases — that take into account industry and region-specific criteria, as well as provisions for students to work while studying.
“The question of immigration and the balance of immigration is an important one, and it needs to be flexible, as we see, for example, the economy change, as we see regional population levels change,” she said.
“These are all really important things to consider, but to do so in a way that pits Canadians against each other, we can’t be divided, and this is a time where we need to stand together.”
Some municipalities in the Northwest, along with the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association, have publicly called for access to more immigration streams to combat what they’re calling local shortages for skilled and general labour.
The current Rural Community Immigration Pilot was approved for 14 communities across Canada; in the Northwest, Thunder Bay and the immediate surrounding area is the only region where the program is open, leading to calls from other municipalities west and east of Thunder Bay to allow for more pathways to permanent residency.
Rick Dumas, the president of NOMA, has told Newswatch there’s been “some really good traction” made on the issue.
On Monday, Hajdu said there’s work being done to address smaller communities’ concerns.
“The challenge with some of the rural communities (is) they don’t have the infrastructure to be able to support the program and the program needs,” she said. “Those conversations are unfolding right now about who could host the coordination capacity for the small communities.”
“There’s some thought, I think, that there are a number of partners coming together and looking for a host agency that could help with that coordination and we’ll assess that application when it comes time.”
