Website mapping businesses using temporary foreign workers in B.C. and Alberta

VANCOUVER – A new website mapping companies that have received approval to hire temporary foreign workers has gone viral.

The website (http://ntfw.ca/map-companies-hiring-temporary-foreign-workers/) shows thousands of businesses in British Columbia and Alberta that successfully applied to the program up until the end of 2012 — a large number of them restaurants and pubs.

Creator Rohana Rezel says he’s waiting for more information from the federal Human Resources department so he can produce maps for other provinces.

Rezel says he immigrated to Canada from Sri Lanka six years ago, and is not against temporary foreign workers.

But he says there is a demand from Canadians to know which companies are using the controversial program.

And he says he fears that workers in Canada on a temporary basis are very vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.