Descrease article font size
Increase article font size
The B.C. government is opting in to a recent policy change by Ottawa, allowing rural employers to retain existing low-wage temporary foreign workers beyond the 10 per cent cap for another year.
However, B.C. will not be adopting a second federal policy change, which would allow rural employers to increase their allowable share of temporary workers to 15 per cent.
Speaking in question period on Monday, Post Secondary Education and Future Skills Minister Jessie Sunner said B.C. went with the first option to address labour challenges businesses are facing.
Get breaking National news
Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won’t miss a trending story.
But she said the program also has problems and that closed work permits, which restrict temporary foreign workers to one employer, can lead to exploitation.
“These are individuals that are coming here to support our economy,” Sunner said.
“We need to ensure we’re doing everything to support them. We do need to reform the program. We can’t just have one-off extensions. We need to reform the program and that is why our government is advocating to the federal government regularly to say that we need to have greater control over the economic immigration that we have in our province.”
More on Politics
More videos
Story continues below advertisement
Seasonal, short-term and primary agriculture positions will remain exempt from the temporary foreign worker caps.
4:45
Calls for B.C. to adopt changes to temporary foreign worker program
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.