I suppose no one is surprised they are letting them stay............
The transitional measure will offer a reprieve to some employees in Alberta working in the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program as they wait for their permanent residence applications to be processed, Employment Minister Jason Kenney said in a letter to Conservative MPs obtained by CBC News.
The federal government introduced
new rules last June barring employers from hiring low-wage temporary foreign workers in regions where the unemployment rate is above six per cent, and requiring employers to cap the number of foreign workers they hire at 10 per cent by 2016.
April 1 is the deadline for workers under the program who have been in the province since 2011 or earlier to leave the country in accordance with the new Labour Market Impact Assessment criteria.
"Employment and Social Development Canada will now provide a one-time exemption to these workers from being counted under the cap on low-wage workers imposed on employers provided they meet strict criteria," the letter says.
Additionally, Citizenship and Immigration Canada is providing a one-year bridging work permit to temporary foreign workers who are subject to the four-year cumulative duration limit.
"This should provide some relief to employers who have TFWs that have already applied for immigration and are in the queue waiting for for their applications to be assessed," the letter says.
This is yet another example of the Harper government telling Canadians one thing and then turning around and doing something else to employers," Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan said.
McGowan said this new plan from the Harper government is particularly "cynical, sneaky and mean-spirited" because they have tried to dress it up as an act of kindness to the thousands of TFWs who face the prospect of deportation as soon as April 1.
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Some temporary foreign workers in Alberta to get reprieve - Calgary - CBC News