Mississauga, ON – Sept. 3, 2025 – Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is pledging to permanently abolish Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program, accusing Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal government of fueling a jobs crisis that has left hundreds of thousands of Canadians struggling to find work.
At a press conference in Mississauga today, flanked by Michelle Rempel Garner, the party’s Shadow Minister for Immigration, Poilievre said the Conservatives would immediately end all new TFW permits and phase out the program entirely, except for a stand-alone system for agricultural workers.
“Prime Minister Carney has failed to meet his own already excessive immigration targets and now he’s on track to issue the highest number of TFW permits ever in a single year,” Poilievre said. “It’s time to take decisive action to protect our youth and workers.”
According to Poilievre, the Liberals’ reliance on temporary foreign labour has left a generation of Canadians locked out of the job market. He cited rising unemployment, stagnant wages, and record TFW permit numbers as proof of a system “designed for corporate profits, not Canadian workers.”
Recent federal data shows a 7.4% increase in Employment Insurance claims between March and June 2025, while nearly 400,000 Canadians have been unemployed for more than two years – the highest level outside the pandemic since 1998. Youth employment is now at its lowest point in over 25 years, outside COVID-19 disruptions.
Rempel Garner blamed Liberal policies for what she called “a broken deal” between employers and Canadian workers.
“Not long ago, young Canadians could gain vital skills in entry-level jobs, earn enough to pay for school, and build a future,” she said. “But the Liberals broke that deal, leading to staggering youth unemployment and heartbreaking stories of graduates sending hundreds of resumes without a single callback.”
Poilievre’s remarks singled out Tim Hortons, a symbol of Canada’s first-job culture, which he said has increased its use of TFWs by 1,131% in just four years. “Our immigration system shouldn’t exist to pad the bottom lines of foreign-owned mega chains,” Poilievre said.
The Conservatives’ plan would:
- End new TFW permits immediately.
- Wind down the program within five years in ultra-low-unemployment regions.
- Create a separate program for essential agricultural workers only.
The move comes as Canada teeters on the brink of a recession, with CIBC reporting unemployment levels “typically only seen during recessionary periods.” In July, 700,500 Ontarians were out of work, surpassing Great Recession levels in 2009.
Poilievre argued that a shrinking domestic labour market, combined with AI-driven automation, a housing crisis, and sluggish productivity, has left young Canadians “trapped.”
“They can’t buy homes or start families without good-paying jobs, but they can’t get those jobs without experience – lost to competition from temporary foreign labour,” he said.
The announcement sets up a fierce political battle over immigration and employment policy, as the Conservatives frame themselves as champions of Canadian workers ahead of the next federal election.