Toronto: Several Indo-Canadian trucking companies, farms and even a gurdwara are among the concerns that have been penalised by the Canadian government for being non-complaint when it comes to hiring temporary foreign workers.
Of the over 400 firms found to be non-compliant, at least 10% appear to be run by Indo-Canadians.
Prominent among them is Toor Vineyards, based in Oliver in the province of British Columbia, which was fined 118,000 Canadian dollars and permanently banned from using the temporary worker programme.
Details of the companies found non-complaint have been posted on a public website by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
Also on the list is Samhil Logistics, based in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), which has been fined 100,000 Canadian dollars and subject to a ten-year prohibition on hiring through the temporary foreign worker (TFW) programme.
There are several such Indo-Canadian outfits that were found ineligible for the programme by Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), the agency which manages it.
A surprising appearance on the list is the Gur Sikh Temple and Sikh Heritage Museum Society in Abbotsford, British Columbia, which was fined 30,000 Canadian dollars and deemed ineligible due to an unpaid monetary policy.
Much of this enforcement action was taken to curb the misuse of the Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA), a document prospective employers have to procure prior to hiring a foreign worker. LMIA fraud has been a topic of discussion in Canada over recent months as the government has sought to curb immigration and clean up the system. There have been multiple anecdotal reports of unscrupulous immigration agents working with employers to generate LMIAs, after prospective employees pay sums ranging from 10,000 Canadian dollar to nearly 75,000 Canadian dollars. Some prospective immigrants have told the Hindustan Times of these demands for processing the LMIA.
That was alluded to in a release from ESDC on January 17, in which it said it had “significantly expanded its efforts to monitor and combat” LMIA misuse, with more rigorous oversight in high-risk areas, when processing LMIAs and conducting inspections and eliminating attestations from professional accountants or lawyers as proof of business legitimacy to help ensure job offers are genuine, among other measures.
