2-year delay in P.E.I.'s temporary foreign worker protections 'not good enough': McNeilly

More than two years after P.E.I.'s Temporary Foreign Worker Protection Act was passed, it still hasn't been proclaimed into law.

The legislation gives foreign workers protection from abuse, threats, or being misled by an Island employer.

But because it hasn't been proclaimed yet, those protections are not actually in effect.

In the P.E.I. Legislature on Thursday, Liberal MLA Gord McNeilly said the delay shows a "glaring lack of action." The Opposition House Leader asked the Progressive Conservative government when it will proclaim the act.

"Temporary foreign workers play a crucial role in our agricultural industry, making up approximately 40 per cent of its workforce," McNeilly said. "As we approach the agricultural season, with farmers eagerly anticipating the arrival of foreign temporary workers, there has been an unreasonable delay of two years. 

"When is this act going to be proclaimed?" 

In response the province's workforce minister, Jenn Redmond, did not give a date on when the act would be proclaimed, but said that it would be "this year."

"The proclamation of the act will be coming in in a phased approach," she said. "This will include creating various educational resources on worker rights, living and working here on P.E.I. into multiple languages, and we'll continue the work to support that act." 

The Temporary Foreign Worker Protection Act aims to provide additional protection for the workers, beyond what's outlined in the P.E.I.'s Employment Standards Act. 

Temporary foreign workers are considered uniquely vulnerable, because the work permits they receive through the federal program tie them to a single employer.

The act received royal assent in May 2022, but it still needs to be proclaimed to come into force.

On Thursday, Redmond said the next phase of proclaiming the act include introducing licensing requirements for recruiters of temporary foreign workers — even though, as McNeilly pointed out in the legislature, that's what the province said it was already doing last June.

"I'm not sure if that's old speaking notes, or if it's really going to happen," he said during Question Period. 

The Liberal MLA said Redmond's responses to his questions were "not good enough," adding that he'd be bringing forward a petition with 400 signatures urging immediate proclamation of the act.