OTTAWA — A youth exchange program is drawing the attention of opposition parties and student groups who question whether it is being used as a back door for temporary foreign workers at a time when youth unemployment remains stubbornly high.

Liberal labour critic Rodger Cuzner told The Huffington Post Canada he is very concerned about the explosive growth of the International Experience Canada (IEC) program – and the lack of reciprocal job opportunities for Canadian youth.

In 2004, 23,869 young foreigners came to Canada to work under the program while 20,836 young Canadians left to work abroad. Eight years later, however, the program had mushroomed, with 58,094 foreign youth coming to Canada in 2012 but only 17,731 young Canadians had gone abroad.

In the House of Commons on Tuesday, Cuzner suggested that current Jobs Minister Jason Kenney had switched the focus of the program to satisfy perceived labour market needs. “When he was in Ireland, on one of the television shows, he was saying that one of our biggest economic problems in Canada is a skills shortage and that we encourage young people from Ireland to come to our country,” Cuzner said.

“Meanwhile, young Canadians have lost about 200,000 jobs in this country since then.”

International Experience Canada was originally designed as a cultural exchange with the goal of having a “neutral effect” on the Canadian labour market. Under the Conservatives, however, it has shifted focus to become a temporary foreign worker program for those 18 to 35 years of age, Liberals say.

The IEC recently expanded to allow young workers to stay in Canada for two years rather than one year. Young foreign workers may also reapply after their holiday visas have expired. And the federal government is promoting the IEC program to employers as a way to hire young people from abroad without having to prove that no Canadians can be found to do the job.

A 2010 Foreign Affairs Evaluation Report noted the early tensions between the diplomatic objectives and the new labour supply objectives of the program.

“IEC was said to be useful for Canadian employers looking for temporary workers,” the report stated, after evaluators made site visits and interviewed “key informants.”

In 2009, IEC accounted for 62,000 of the planned 150,000 temporary residents, according to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC).

Diplomats were concerned not only by the program’s rapid growth but also by the fact that young Canadians were not participating in equal numbers. They questioned why those older than 30 would use the program, and they flagged concerns that shifting focus towards a non-diplomatic purpose might “jeopardize relationships with some governments.”

Public servants were also quite concerned about potential abuses. Three cases involving sex workers and refugee claims were brought to their attention in 2009 – until then, there had been no reports of problems since 1986.

“Interviewees at CIC indicated that isolated cases of abuses have already been reported, such as Canadian companies or schools promoting IEC as a means to bring workers to Canada, small companies using IEC to avoid HRSDC paperwork and a lengthy process, and IEC being used to bring sex workers into Canada,” the report said.

NDP employment critic Jinny Sims told HuffPost that her primary concern is that the program is being expanded while youth unemployment remains in the double digits. (The youth unemployment rate – for those aged 15 to 24 – was more than double the national average, 13.6 per cent, in March).

CIC refused to provide HuffPost with current data about the number of Canadians and foreigners using the program.

But in 2012, when the federal government allowed 58,094 foreign young people, 4,600 more than its 53,455 quota intended, the youth unemployment rate was at 14.3 per cent.

Internal documents show the Conservatives intended to double the 2007 program quota by 2011. But the rapid growth has not stopped. The number of Irish working holiday visas, for example, just went up by another 1,200 to 7,700.

“Just look at how much this program has grown,” Sims said. “It is obviously out of control.”

Sims said she has no problem with the way the program was intended: short term, very limited, students coming during their break. But if employers really want workers with international experience, Sims said: “surely, that happens after our young people here have had access to the job.”

Sims said she believes that the government is courting accredited trades people from Europe, such as welders, carpenters, electricians, while trades apprentices here cannot get jobs and they cannot even find people to take them on as apprentices.

“I think that the minister has opened up the floodgates in this area,” she added.

Cuzner said the program should strike a balance between work opportunities in Canada for those in other countries and opportunities for young Canadians in other countries. “And that balance certainly isn’t there; we are at a deficit right now.”

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