Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hired a nanny from outside Canada to care for his children before he became Liberal Party leader -- and a vocal critic of the temporary foreign worker program.

In an email to CTV News on Monday, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s Office said that Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, “submitted one successful application to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program for a caregiver prior to Mr. Trudeau becoming the Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.

“Employment with this individual ceased before Mr. Trudeau became leader of the Liberal Party of Canada,” the PMO’s deputy director of communications, Olivier Duchesneau, wrote.

He added that a second application to the TFW program was made, “but later withdrawn by the family and did not go through the process.”

The PMO issued the statement after the National Post reported that Trudeau and his wife had applied to bring two foreign nannies to their household.

Well before the 2015 election campaign, Trudeau criticized the Conservative government over the temporary foreign workers program. In an op-ed published in May, 2014, Trudeau said the program “drives down wages and displaces Canadian workers,” and accused the Conservatives of mismanaging it.

In his email to CTV News, Duchesneau said that Trudeau and the Liberal government have “always said that the Temporary Foreign Worker Program needs to change.

“Live-in caregivers have been invited to present at a House of Commons Committee reviewing the program,” he said. “Their experience and voices could help inform that review, and we expect the Committee to suggest ways to better support live-in caregivers. “

Late last year, Trudeau came under fire for using taxpayer dollars to pay for two nannies, after attacking the Conservative government for handing out tax cuts and benefits to well-off families like his. At the time, the PMO said that both caregivers hired by the Trudeaus were Canadian citizens who were born outside the country and have been here for some time.

With files from The Canadian Press