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A New Democrat government in Ottawa would conduct an immediate, expensive and independent review of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

Gil McGowan, the NDP candidate for Edmonton Centre who is on leave from his job as president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, made the announcement Thursday afternoon at his campaign headquarters on 124th Street. The review would also include “all of the Harper government’s migrant worker programs,” he said.

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McGowan, who as AFL president has alternately advocated for an overhaul or outright abolition of the TFW program, said the review would cost “millions of dollars” but suggested the total would pale in comparison to money surrendered by Canadian employees to wage suppression caused by the TFW program.

He also admitted the review could determine that some industries actually need to tap into the labour pool provided by the TFW program.

“We may come to the conclusion that there is a small number of industries who need access to seasonal or temporary workers. But I think the evidence clearly suggests that the number of employers who have a legitimate need is much smaller than those who are claiming that they can’t find workers because of a labour shortage.”