N.S. researchers not surprised by critical report on Canada's migrant worker program

A man walks across the Dalhousie University campus in Halifax on March 16, 2020. A migrant worker rights researchers in Nova Scotia says she isn’t surprised by the UN’s recent report on Canada’s temporary foreign worker program and governments at both the federal and provincial level need to do more to protect workers. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan)

HALIFAX — The recommendations in a recent international report calling Canada's temporary foreign worker program a "breeding ground" for modern slavery should spur governments to improve the treatment of foreign workers, advocates for migrant workers in the Maritimes said Wednesday.

The report from Tomoya Obokata, the United Nations special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, "really provides a lot of excellent recommendations and a blueprint for how governments at multiple levels can make changes to ensure migrant workers are treated fairly and with dignity," said Stacey Gomez, executive director of the Centre for Migrant Worker Rights Nova Scotia.

She, along with Dalhousie University social work professor Raluca Bejan and Tracy Glynn, founder of the New Brunswick-based Madhu Verma Migrant Justice Centre, said they weren't surprised that Obokata concluded after visiting Canada last year that a power imbalance favours employers and prevents workers from exercising their rights.

Bejan, who has researched the experiences of temporary foreign workers, said some of the biggest concerns for Nova Scotia's migrant workers include living in overcrowded housing units.

Though temporary foreign workers are employed across several industries, nearly half of migrants coming into Nova Scotia are part of the seasonal agricultural worker program. Migrants work in farms and do jobs like harvesting produce and pruning crops. They come to Canada for terms of up to eight months on agreements that are arranged between Canada and a worker's home country.

Bejan said that while the seasonal agriculture program is more regulated than the low-wage worker stream for temporary foreign workers, the rules aren't implemented very well. While the program itself is laid out by federal policies, Bejan said varying opinions within the Nova Scotia government regarding which department should enforce rules can hamper enforcement.

Access to suitable housing for the workers is a particular concern for both researchers and advocacy groups in the province. Under the federally established requirements of the program, all employers must provide housing for workers, and federal policies mandate that no more than two people can share a bedroom.

In a report released in March, Bejan and three other researchers with the Temporary Foreign Workers Maritimes group found that among 15 migrant workers participating in the study, 10 lived with at least nine other people. The researchers found that many migrant workers in the province live in unsafe conditions, where mould and pests are commonplace.

Their research also cited a "chronic" lack of privacy and difficulty accessing laundry machines, kitchen appliances and washrooms.

Gomez said poor access to health care is another pressing issue for temporary foreign workers in Nova Scotia. Seasonal workers in the agriculture stream are often only in the country for eight months at a time, short of the full year needed to receive provincial health insurance.

This is different from such provinces as Ontario and Quebec, where under the seasonal agriculture worker program, workers can access public health care on arrival.

Bejan's report highlighted the case of Kerian Burnett. The Jamaican migrant was diagnosed with stage four cervical cancer while working on a strawberry farm in Nova Scotia and lost both her job and employer-provided health insurance and housing. Burnett accumulated $81,000 in medical bills after two surgeries. After community members highlighted her plight, she was given access to a federal health program.

Gomez said Burnett is just one of many migrant workers who have faced barriers accessing health care. Workers coming from Mexico or the Caribbean often experience language barriers when navigating the health-care system, and they can sometimes face racism in the health system and have medical information withheld.

In New Brunswick, where many migrant workers are employed in seafood processing plants through the low-wage work stream, Glynn said workers are often concerned about inadequate safety training, especially when language barriers are present.

"It's dangerous work. You're working with machines that are processing lobster claws (workers) were having to rely on co-workers for translation," Glynn said in an interview.

Bejan, Gomez and Glynn agreed with Obokata's criticism of Canadian regulations that tie a worker's migration status to a closed, employer-specific work permit, limiting their employment mobility. They all said the closed, employer-specific permits should end.

"The problem with the program is that people do not have the freedom to choose a different employer if they want to leave. Their work contracts need to not be tied to a single employer," Bejan said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 14, 2024.

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