OTTAWA — The Conservative government knew the temporary foreign worker program was causing pressure on youth employment almost a year before reforming the program, documents show.

In an August 2013 briefing note for Employment Minister Jason Kenney, department officials warned that industries which commonly employ young Canadians are also among the employers hiring the most temporary foreign workers.

"Five of the top six industries that employ the most youth were also in the top half of (temporary foreign worker) program users," reads the document, prepared shortly after Kenney was appointed to the department.

Critics of the temporary foreign worker program have raised concerns that employers were hiring lower-paid foreign workers, rather than Canadian workers. Kenney's office says reforms made in June 2014, almost one year after the internal briefing, have specifically addressed the issue.

The industries listed as employing a large proportion of youth and foreign workers include accommodation and food service, construction, information and cultural industries, as well as the unspecified "other services."

The internal documents were obtained by the Opposition New Democrats under access to information law. According to the NDP, the documents prove the governing Conservatives were aware of problems with the temporary foreign worker program — specifically as it relates to youth employment — but took no action until media reports exposed abuse of the system.

"The minister knew what the issue was, because the issue was raised with him. But he selectively chose to ignore the information he had," said MP Jinny Sims, the NDP's critic for employment and social development. "It's only when the story was broken out in the media by CBC that suddenly he couldn't ignore it anymore."

Kenney's director of communications, Alexandra Fortier, disputed the opposition claims. She said the government's June 2014 overhaul of the system directly addressed the issue of employers hiring lower-paid foreign workers over young Canadians.

"One of our key changes is forcing employers to demonstrate that they tried to recruit Canadian youth and other under-represented groups, like aboriginals and Canadians with disabilities," Fortier wrote in an email.

"For the first time since the launch of this program in 1973, employers will have to disclose how many Canadians, including young people, applied for a job and will have to explain concretely why they were not hired."

The documents note that excluding young people from entry-level positions delays the development of the so-called "non-cognitive" skills people pick up on the job: self-management, teamwork, persistence and problem-solving, among others.

"Employers often look for a combination of cognitive and non-cognitive skills acquired through experience and education," the document reads. "The lack of these skills can mean difficulty with labour market attachment and the loss of opportunity for further skill development. And lack of employment can lead to both cognitive and non-cognitive skill loss over time."

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The national youth unemployment rate was 13.3 per cent in December, essentially unchanged from a year before and almost double the national unemployment rate of 6.6 per cent.

In 2012 — the most recent data available when the briefing note was prepared — Canada fell near the average for youth unemployment among OECD countries, with 20.1 per cent for those aged 15 to 19, and 11 per cent for those aged 20 to 24. Some groups faced higher unemployment rates, such as aboriginal youth (20.9 per cent), recent immigrant youth (22.7 per cent) and youth with disabilities (23 per cent).