Privacy Impact Assessment Summary - Regulatory changes to the Temporary Foeign Worker Program

A Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) was conducted for proposed regulatory amendments to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). The TFWP Regulatory Amendments aim to increase worker protection and enhance program integrity. The PIA was conducted to determine if any privacy risks would be associated with new personal information that would be collected, used and disclosed as part of these amendments. The proposed Regulations were pre-published in the Canada Gazette in December 2009 for public comments, and final regulatory amendments were published August 18, 2010 with an implementation date of April 1^st, 2011.

The regulations clarify and enhance the Government of Canada’s^{Footnote 1} authority to assess the genuineness of an employer’s offer of employment; provide authority to conduct assessments of the previous employment of a TFW; and introduce a two-year period of ineligibility to access the TFWP to employers who are found to have provided significantly different wages, working conditions or occupation than offered in the previous employment of a TFW. The regulatory amendments allow officers to take into consideration additional information relating to employers’ job offers and their past engagement of TFWs. In addition, the regulations introduce a maximum of four years of accumulated work in Canada, subject to certain exceptions, before a TFW will no longer be authorized to work in Canada.

Employers who are ineligible to access to the TFWP for a two-year period would have their name, address and the period of ineligibility posted on CIC’s external website. Employers will be given the opportunity to respond and provide additional information, and in some cases to undertake corrective action, prior to a final decision regarding ineligibility and the publication of their information online.

The PIA Report identified areas of privacy risks that can be mitigated or eliminated by implementing recommended measures. These findings remain appropriate and relevant to the final regulations. The privacy risks identified in the Report generally deal with the collection, use and disclosure of personal information relevant to the regulatory amendments. Citizenship and Immigration Canada, in collaboration with Human Resources and Skills Development Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency, will implement measures to mitigate or eliminate these risks before the TFWP Regulatory Amendments are implemented.

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