B.C. Premier David Eby is being slammed for comments blaming Canada’s immigration system for filling up food banks and homeless shelters — and some of the backlash is coming from within his own party.
Last week, during a press conference about school funding, Eby went off script and urged the federal government to cancel or reform the temporary foreign worker program, which has been beset by fraud.
He also criticized the federal government’s policy on immigration more broadly:
“We can’t have an immigration system that fills up our homeless shelters and our food banks. We can’t have an immigration system that outpaces our ability to build schools and housing. And we can’t have an immigration program that results in high youth unemployment.”
Eby’s position closely aligned with federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre. Both Eby and Poilievre made clear they’re not blaming the workers, rather a system that exploits them for cheap labour.
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Eby’s comments prompted an angry rebuke from Katrina Chen, a former NDP cabinet minister who co-chaired Eby’s leadership campaign in 2022.
“I’m furious about this,” she wrote on Facebook. “It happens all the time: government underfunds services, then points fingers at immigration through flawed policies government created. This fuels bias and discrimination.”
Chen told CBC News that Eby’s comments left her “shocked.”
“By pointing fingers, by saying that a certain community is taking more resources than another, it’s just not right. It’s divisive,” she said.
Chen said Eby’s comments: “separate the immigrant community to what some call the ‘regular’ or Canadian community.”
However, Chen also praised Eby for the work he’s done on anti-racism initiatives in B.C.
WATCH | Conservative leader says temporary foreign worker program is shutting Canadian youth out of jobs: 
Poilievre calls for temporary foreign worker program to be scrapped
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called on the government to abolish the temporary foreign worker program at a news conference on Wednesday. Poilievre says the program has oversaturated the market with cheap labour, making it challenging for young Canadians to secure employment.
Sukhi Sandhu, a life-long New Democrat who has volunteered for the party during several election campaigns, said Eby’s comments do not align with the party’s values.
“The premier needs to step forward and acknowledge the harm of his comments.” said Sandhu, who was appointed by cabinet to serve on the government’s anti-racism committee.
Those who work at some Downtown Eastside shelters in Vancouver say Eby’s comments aren’t supported by the facts.
Nick Wells, spokesperson for Union Gospel Mission, says about 10 per cent of the shelter’s clients are immigrants.
“I think the statement that newcomers are filling up shelters is off base,” Wells said. “I don’t think it’s helpful to blame or scapegoat anyone who uses our services.”
Nick Well is a spokesperson for Union Gospel Mission in the Downtown Eastside. (CBC News)
Amanda Burrows, executive director of First United, said the vast majority of the shelter’s clients are Canadians, with a disproportionate number of Indigenous people using its services.
“It does create a bit of harm when it creates these myths that it’s one group that is using our services, when we know it’s policy failure, it’s system failure,” Burrows said.
Food banks, however, have reported seeing increased use of their services by newcomers to Canada, though they don’t specifically note the number of clients who are part of the temporary foreign worker program.
A recent report from Food Banks Canada shows that newcomers to Canada make up about a third of food bank clients, a rate which has doubled since 2016.
“In the last few years we have seen a pretty significant increase in immigrants and refugees coming to food banks,” Dan Huang-Taylor, executive director of Food Banks B.C. “Those numbers are reflective of the general increases in many different client populations and it’s a reflection of the increasing bite of this cost of living crisis.”
The Greater Vancouver Food Bank reported in 2024 that 35 per cent of its clients were newcomers to Canada, a rate that has increased in the last five years.
Eby was not available for an interview Monday or Tuesday. The premier’s office pointed to a portion of Eby’s Friday speech to the Burnaby Board of Trade.
B.C. Premier David Eby speaks during a news conference at Clayton Heights Secondary School, in Surrey, B.C., on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)
Eby criticized a Starbucks coffee shop in Vancouver and Boston Pizza restaurant in Richmond for applying for a labour market assessment to hire temporary foreign workers for a management position.
“I don’t believe that they can’t find a British Columbian on their team to promote to manager,” he said.
An employer must provide a labour market assessment to the federal government before hiring a temporary foreign worker, to prove that no Canadian could be found for the job.
His speech, however, did not directly respond to the criticism.
WATCH | B.C. jobs minister says temporary foreign worker program being exploited: 
Temporary foreign worker program is being exploited, says B.C. Jobs Minister Ravi Kahlon
B.C. Jobs Minister Ravi Kahlon says some employers have built business plans around the temporary foreign worker program and there have been a number of cases of fraud associated with it. Speaking to B.C. Today host Michelle Eliot, Kahlon said local citizens who need access to employment opportunities should be prioritized for jobs, although he acknowledges that industries like agriculture depend on the program.
Jobs Minister Ravi Kahlon said on Friday the issue wasn’t blaming temporary foreign workers.
“A lot of the folks that are working came through because the system was built that way. There should be no blame to these young people. And some of them face a huge amount of racism,” said Kahlon.
Byron Cruz with Sanctuary Health, a non-profit that works with migrant workers, says he sees that racism first hand. Cruz said temporary workers already feel disposable and Eby’s statement creates further division between them and Canadians.
“He went too far,” said Cruz. “This time it seems the premier in British Columbia is on the same channel as the Conservatives.”
B.C. Green interim Leader Jeremy Valeriote said Eby should apologize.
“We were just floored by the fact that the premier would echo the Conservative party leader,” Valeriote said. “It’s not a constructive way to look at our society.”