Saskatchewan and Employment Minister Jason Kenney

Employment Minister Jason Kenney: The Harper government has drastically narrowed the doorway for employers to bring foreign workers into the country legally to work as food-counter attendants, kitchen helpers, light-duty cleaners, cashiers and other service-industry jobs. Fast-food businesses in Alberta and Saskatchewan were alarmed: Prices would rise and restaurants would close, they warned. But the government probably cannot so easily stop the providers of doughnuts and hamburgers from serving their customers. , according to Winnipeg Free Press. Under new rules announced Friday by Employment Minister Jason Kenney, foreign temps cannot be hired for low-skill work in regions with an unemployment rate greater than six per cent. Employers cannot fill more than 10 per cent of their jobs with foreign temps, though they are given three years to scale down to that level. Employers will be inspected -- this has not been done in the past -- and will be asked to show what effort they made to hire Canadians and how they plan to hire more Canadians. Related Items Articles Changes to foreign worker program generally positive The government was previously widening that doorway from year to year so the numbers of temporary foreign workers rose to 336,000 recently from 100,000 in 2002. Employers were pleased. Many of the workers involved seemed pleased, though fear of deportation may stop their tongues. Complaints developed last year, however, that the program was being abused. In April 2013, information-technology employees at the Royal Bank of Canada were instructed to train the foreign temps from India who would take their places after they were laid off. A Chinese-owned mining company in British Columbia brought coal miners from China, claiming Canadian miners could not do the work. Restaurant workers in Saskatchewan and B.C. complained they had been laid off and replaced by lower-paid foreign temps. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.