Bill 48 Passes – British Columbia Adopts Temporary Foreign Worker Protection Act

In 2017, British Columbia issued approximately 17,000 work permits under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (the "TFWP"), which is the second-highest number of such permits granted in Canada after Ontario.¹ The TFWP allows employers to hire temporary foreign workers ("TFWs") to fill jobs that cannot otherwise be filled by Canadian citizens or permanent residents. For example, the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, a program stream under the TFWP, allows workers from Mexico and certain Caribbean countries to be employed for up to eight months in connection with the production of goods on the National Commodities List.²

The BC Temporary Foreign Worker Protection Act (the "Act"), which applies to all foreign nationals who are employed or seeking employment in BC, received royal assent on November 8, 2018, but will not be in force until regulations are enacted, likely early in 2019. The Act's stated aims are to improve the protection of TFWs by creating a