British Columbia announced that it would be boosting protection for approximately 50,000 temporary foreign workers in the province. This comes after the province passed Bill 48, the BC Temporary Foreign Worker Protection Act, which will enable licensing requirements and registries creation for recruiters of foreign workers and employers. Most temporary foreign workers are deployed to work in B.C after the federal government issued more than 50,000 work permits in 2018 to foreign nationals destined for B.C.
Half of these temporary foreign workers have been deployed in the agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting industries in British Columbia. Employers can bring Temporary Workers to Canada through the TFWP after which they offer them the jobs that they cannot find permanent resident or Canadians resent. According to a particular report in November 2018 the Bill 48 received royal assessment and the regulations were to be in full swing early 2019. Both employment recruiters and employers are expected to each receive two registries.
According to the new law employment recruiters and agencies will be required to hold licenses while those employers recruiting foreign workers will be expected to have provincial government registration certificates. The registration will be available online for free with three years of validity. The act comes along with other provisions under the jurisdiction of BC provincial officials that prohibit specific practices like retaining anyone’s passport, misrepresenting employment opportunities and threatening deportation without cause among others.
