Tories ponder tougher measures concerning temporary foreign workers

OTTAWA – The business community is apprehensive over the federal government’s consideration of a so-called wage floor as it ponders new rules designed to fix the troubled temporary foreign worker program.

At a closed-door meeting with stakeholders earlier this week, officials from Employment Minister Jason Kenney’s department presented various options to tighten the program.

They included measures that would prevent companies from paying temporary workers less than a set wage level yet to be determined.

That wage floor would be aimed at making it more difficult for employers such as low-paying fast-food restaurants to access the program, the stakeholders were told.

Dan Kelly, head of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, says Kenney is beginning to sound like a union sympathizer.

Kenney has said businesses, particularly fast-food restaurants, should raise wages if they can’t find Canadian labour in their communities.

Follow Lee-Anne Goodman on Twitter at @leeanne25