‘Extremely competitive’ path to non-compliance Manitoba trucking companies fined for foreign worker program abuses ring industry alarms By: Gabrielle Piché Posted: 6:02 PM CDT Thursday, May. 9, 2024

Mistreatment of temporary foreign workers shadows Manitoba’s trucking industry, experts say — and companies are increasingly being fined for it.

Since January 2023, nine Manitoba businesses have been hit with a collective $426,500 in federal fines for not complying with the Temporary Foreign Worker and International Mobility programs.

Seven of those organizations branded themselves as trucking companies, public data on the federal government’s website show.

Charges include breaking Canadian laws for hiring and recruiting employees and not providing pay or working conditions matching those given during offers of employment.

Ottawa can place impermanent temporary foreign worker recruitment bans on workplaces that are fined.

The Manitoba Trucking Association is “deeply concerned” about potential immigrant labour abuse in the industry, executive director Aaron Dolyniuk said. “We are finding that, due to the extremely competitive nature of our industry, less-than-reputable companies are finding illegal ways to make money through immigration and labour abuse.”

“We are finding that, due to the extremely competitive nature of our industry, less-than-reputable companies are finding illegal ways to make money through immigration and labour abuse.”–Aaron Dolyniuk

Dolyniuk pointed to the example of a numbered company — 10047179 Manitoba Ltd. — that was issued a $258,000 fine in February 2023, alongside a five-year ban on hiring temporary foreign workers.

The company was accused of breaking Canadian law for hiring and recruiting employees and not putting in “enough effort” to ensure the workplace was free of abuse and reprisal, among other issues.

What was alarming, Dolyniuk said, was the company hadn’t registered as a trucking entity in Manitoba, yet it was recruiting foreign workers as truck drivers.

The numbered business doesn’t have a carrier profile listed with the provincial government.

The Free Press couldn’t reach the director of 10047179 Manitoba Ltd.

Employment and Social Development Canada, which oversees several immigration functions, did not answer questions by print deadline Thursday.

“It’s exploitation of … workers, but it also makes our highways less safe,” stated Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Lisa Naylor.

‘This is a Canada problem’

The NDP provincial government formed a working group in January to spearhead examination of exploitation within the trucking industry. Ensuring all workers are properly trained and paid is part of the goal, Naylor said.

Some foreign workers are treated like “private contractors” — they can’t access the same benefits, they’re underpaid and working “far too long” hours, Naylor added.

“This is a Canada problem,” she said. “We are needing to have communication across all provinces.”

The working group, involving various levels of Manitoba’s government, is to hold its second meeting soon.

Foreign worker program enforcement can be iffy, according to immigration lawyer Kenneth Zaifman. He’s worked with temporary foreign workers, and businesses hiring such employees, for at least 25 years.

Government “may or may not” monitor a company’s actions once it’s been deemed ineligible to hire temporary foreign workers for a time, Zaifman stated. “One company is ineligible, they incorporate another company and do it again.”

So-called chameleon carriers — transport organizations who close and start a new company instead of addressing issues at the original enterprise — correlate with some immigration and labour abuses, Dolyniuk echoed.

Trucking companies use temporary foreign workers to fill staffing shortages; the need is immense, Dolyniuk noted: the sector must train and retain 3,485 drivers within five years.

Some fines administrative

Many businesses don’t use temporary foreign workers — it is “a challenging thing for companies to manage” — and not all who do mistreat their migrant staff, Dolyniuk added.

Good companies follow federal program requirements and provide settlement and training support, he said.

Some of the non-compliance fines businesses face are administrative, such as not properly sharing documents.

Three of the nine Manitoba companies fined since January 2023 were targeted solely for documentation, according to a federal government webpage.

Tornado Haulers Ltd. is the newest Manitoba business on the list of non-compliants. It received a $78,000 bill in March; it hasn’t paid and is currently ineligible to hire temporary foreign workers, according to the federal data.

The feds say Tornado Haulers broke Canadian law for hiring and recruiting employees and the company’s pay or working conditions didn’t match the offer of employment outline.

Tornado Haulers plans to take the government to court, a staff member told the Free Press by phone. The charges are “totally unfair,” he added.

Around three of the 13 Manitoba companies fined and suspended for non-compliance in 2021-22 were trucking businesses. A pet spa and farming and construction ventures were among the others reprimanded.

Anecdotally, Zaifman Law has noted more businesses recruiting temporary foreign workers amid the past years’ labour shortages.

“Some employers feel the workers will not take any steps to jeopardize their future in Canada and they prey on those workers,” Zaifman said, adding clients he assists stringently follow federal programs.

Temporary foreign workers are not bound to the employer they’ve come to Canada for, despite what they might think, Zaifman explained.

Those experiencing mistreatment can file a federal vulnerable worker application and ask for an open work permit, meaning they can apply for jobs elsewhere; their current employer doesn’t have to know.

Several government entities, including Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada and Manitoba’s employment standards division, can investigate employers.

Even so, the Temporary Foreign Worker program has major flaws, said Diwa Marcelino, an organizer with Migrante Manitoba, a grassroots advocate for migrants. “The system produces exploitation.”

Many foreigners don’t dare to speak up; they worry doing so will affect their permanent residency applications, he said.

Scrapping employer-tied work permits for “open” work permits will end the “precarious situation where the employer has all the power,” Marcelino said.

On Monday, Migrante held a news conference in Winnipeg, where four Filipinos who’d entered Canada on Temporary Foreign Worker permits alleged abuse at a Thompson hotel.

At the time, Manitoba Labour and Immigration Minister Malaya Marcelino said the province planned to hire more employment standards staff.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com