Some employers using foreign worker program facing bigger fines for violations

Amid increasing scrutiny on the habituate of Canada’s temporary strange worker programme, the number clam amount of fines imposed on employers who are found to violate the terms of the program has risen dramatically. 

However, some observers think changes to monitoring and enforcement of the program are still required. 

Catherine Connelly is a professor of human resources and management at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., who has studied the temporary foreign worker program. 

She says the federal government historically seemed to take an “educational approach,” with fines that were usually in the hundreds rather than the thousands of dollars.

“There just didn't seem to be too much of a deterrence in terms of how they were approaching the enforcement of the rules of the program,” she said. 

But Connelly says as public perception of the program soured, she noticed a gradual change that built into a “dramatic shift” over the last year. 

“Now the approach seems to be more of a deterrence approach and we see fines easily into the tens of thousands, if not the hundreds of thousands of dollars,” she said. 

In the 2018-19 fiscal year, 74 companies faced a total of $102,250 in fines. 

By comparison, during the last fiscal year, 147 companies faced $4,882,500 in fines. 

Connelly believes the number of companies caught and fined is likely a “fraction” of those who are actually breaking the rules. But she says large fines may catch the attention of companies that are using the program. 

“They are risk-averse and they are strategic in their planning. And so a well-run company will see that non-compliance with this complicated program is a serious issue that needs to be avoided,” she said.  

Meanwhile, the number of employers applying to use the temporary foreign worker program has dropped in the last two years, according to recent numbers released by the federal government.

After hitting roughly 150,000 applications in the 2023-24 fiscal year, the number fell to roughly 63,000 so far in the current fiscal year. 

Although the total dollar amount of fines has gone up, the number of inspections conducted by Employment and Social Development Canada has dropped. 

The total number of inspections was 1,853 in 2018-19. The number of inspections grew during the pandemic, but dropped to 1,435 last year.  

In response to questions about why fines are up while inspections are not, the department wrote in an email this is due to “recent efforts to concentrate inspections on areas with a heightened risk of potential non-compliance.” 

The statement said that "employers now face greater consequences when violations occur, and the impact of these changes is now becoming more evident in our inspections."

It added that in some cases fine limits have been increased. 

Syed Hussan, the co-executive director of the organization Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, is not convinced that the fines are having much effect. 

He acknowledges there have been some recent large fine amounts, but said the alliance's analysis suggests these are “outliers” as Employment and Social Development Canada continues to impose many smaller fine amounts as well.  

For instance, in 2025 the department’s list of non-compliant employers showed more than 100 examples of fines valued at $5,000 or less. 

Hussan is concerned that many fines remain unpaid, and that none of the fine amounts ever go toward the workers. 

“The stated purpose of these inspections is to increase worker rights,” he said. 

“We've always said that the only way to ensure increased worker rights is if workers get reparations, workers get justice, workers get some sort of repayment or reimbursement … Without it, the fine system does not work.” 

He noted that some employers facing large fines have gone to Federal Court to ask for judicial review in an attempt to get a fine overturned. 

These court cases include companies in the Atlantic Canadian seafood processing industry which received the highest and second-highest fine amount in the program to date in 2024 and 2025. 

Bolero Shellfish of Saint-Simon, N.B., received a $1-million fine in 2025. It has filed an application for leave to start a judicial review, arguing the fine was unfair and significantly damaged the company’s reputation.

Lebreton & Sons Fisheries of Grande Anse, N.B., received a $365,750 fine in 2024. A judicial decision in December 2025 overturned part of the fine, and sent the matter back to the department for further review. The court upheld some of the fine — under $9,000 — for matters involving salaries, statutory holidays and retention of documents. 

Other Atlantic Canadian companies that received large fines in 2025 included Cape John Crabs and Seafoods of River John, N.S., which received a $257,000 fine and 10-year program ban. 

Canadian Nectar Products of Montague, P.E.I, received a $212,000 fine and two-year ban. 

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