$3.7 million in fines laid for breach of migrant labour regulations in first half of 2025

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Breach of migrant labour regulations are on pace to hit record fines against Canadian employers this year, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.

Figures show federal inspectors in 2025’s first half laid $3,738,000 in fines for various violations, from a few hundred dollars to several thousand.

That figure compared to a total of $4.1 million for all of 2024, and $1.54 million for all of 2023.

A total of 19 employers were also banned from the program from one to five years and in rare cases lifetime bans have been imposed for failure to address abuse or reprisal allegations.

These penalties followed cabinet complaints that Canadian employers had “gotten addicted” to using the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

“To some extent the country has indeed gotten addicted to temporary workers,” then Immigration Minister Marc Miller told Senate Question Period in Oct. 8, 2024. “Businesses have taken advantage of that. They have leveraged that opportunity. I think there is some responsibility there. What we don’t want to do I think is over-correct and make sure we are not throwing the country into a recession, that we are not damaging vital industries.”

Cabinet proposed this year to cut the migrant workforce by reverting to 2014 regulations that capped employers’ hiring of foreigners at 10% of payroll.

Among those employers with some of the highest violations in 2025 were Canadian Nectar Products Inc. of Montague, P.E.I. (fined $212,000), Petro Canada of Grassland, Alta. ($164,000) and True North Freight Solutions Inc. of Brampton, Ont. ($150,000).

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