Conditions for an Efficient Canadian Temporary Foreign Worker Program: The Case of Quebec

The goal of a Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program is to fill occupational labour shortages until local workers are available. Such a program ensures that fast growing firms can hire foreign workers to avoid a slowdown or a stop in their activities. A necessary condition for such a program is to give priority to local workers in hiring. In addition, in the medium term, shortages must be eliminated by increases in local labour supply. Hence, this immigration policy involves constraints to participating firms which must be strictly respected. Since its creation in 1973, the Canadian TFW program has experienced a large number of changes which made it more accessible. Among them, in 2002, the TFW program became available for all occupations, skilled and low-skilled. There is increasing evidence that the program has had adverse impacts on some resident workers in Canada. This paper shows that this is also the case in the province of Quebec. The main shortcomings are the absence of adequate information about the labour markets and low TFW hiring costs.