Expert ‘taken aback’ by Eby foreign worker claims, says axing program won’t fix woes

VICTORIA — Ending the temporary foreign worker program won’t solve “deep structural problems” with housing and other issues in British Columbia, while it would create “problematic consequences” for labour availability, an immigration expert says.

Irene Bloemraad, co-director of the centre for migration studies at the University of British Columbia, said calls to scrap or reform the worker’s program are an “easy way” to distract from a lack of affordable housing and other woes.

“If tomorrow, there was not a single additional temporary worker or temporary student who arrived in British Columbia, would housing prices magically go down and would we suddenly have fully staffed ERs?” she asked. “I think the answer would be no.”

Her remarks come after Premier David Eby and federal Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre both suggested axing the program this week, linking it to youth unemployment and other problems.

“It’s an interesting alignment that we currently have two parties on what some people would say are opposite ends of the spectrum, saying a similar thing,” Bloemraad said.

The alignment “speaks to the fact that the Canadian public is worried” about this issue, she said.

“I would also say, however, that focusing on immigrants is an easy way, to be totally frank, to turn the attention away from deep structural problems such as a lack of affordable housing,” she said.

She added that building affordable housing takes time, and there would be “other problematic consequences” if temporary foreign workers or international students were to disappear tomorrow.

Eby acknowledged the need for temporary foreign workers in agriculture, but Bloemraad said B.C. also needs them in housing construction.

Bloemraad said any changes to the program must consider “trade-offs,” and she was “taken aback” by Eby’s “very categorical” remarks connecting immigration to both unemployment and housing problems.

“There didn’t seem to be a lot of nuance,” Bloemraad said. “Basically accusing immigrants of driving youth employment, driving housing problems, and basically almost snatching food from the mouths of Canadians seemed a little bit extreme,” she said.

Eby said Thursday that the temporary foreign worker program should “be cancelled or significantly reformed” because the province can’t have an immigration system that has been linked to high youth unemployment, while putting pressure on housing and schools.

“We can’t have an immigration system that fills up our homeless shelters and our food banks,” Eby said Thursday at an unrelated news event in Surrey. “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.”

On Friday, Eby expanded his comments, saying on social media that B.C. needs to keep the diversity that has seen the province welcome people from around the world.

He said people coming to Canada “must be supported — not exploited by unscrupulous employers or pushed to the edges of society or into poverty.”

He said the current system is not working well for anyone.

“Our system right now is a race to the bottom that hurts our young people, rewards bad actors, and pits people against each other,” he said. “We can do better.”

A statement from Filipino BC neither mentioned Eby nor Poilievre by name, but described “recent comments calling for the elimination or overhaul” of the program as “misguided” and “harmful,” putting “already vulnerable communities in even greater danger.”

It said youth unemployment won’t “be solved by targeting migrant workers in unrelated sectors,” but granting young Canadians access to “emerging industries and meaningful opportunities” in the economy of the future.

Kristina Corpin-Moser, the group’s executive director, said the solution for youth unemployment is to invest in “growth, innovation, and job creation — not to cut from sectors that depend on foreign workers, which will only make existing problems worse.”

It also warns against oversimplifications and stoking resentments.

“When politicians frame migrant workers as the problem, they fuel racism, xenophobia, and scapegoating,” Corpin-Moser said. “Where safe and legal pathways are cut off, unsafe and illegal ones take their place, leaving workers at even greater risk. Politicians have a public obligation to ensure their words do not endanger racialized individuals.”

One BC Leader Dallas Brodie meanwhile, called for the “immediate suspension” of immigration into Canada, “with narrow exceptions for critical shortages like health care.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published September 5, 2025.

Wolfgang Depner, The Canadian Press