In early may, prime minister Stephen Harper’s government suddenly announced that it was going to overhaul the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). This unexpected news came after it was revealed that Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) was using the program to train foreign workers who were preparing to take the jobs of 45 Canadians.

Understandably, there was an outcry, which led to the clampdown. The government announced new rules intended to ensure that any employer using the program has a plan to transition to a Canadian labour force, and that employers could no longer pay foreign workers less than Canadians. Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said the moves would ensure the TFWP will be used only as intended: “to fill acute skills shortages on a temporary basis.”

But there are two sides to every story. RBC and other employers that have used the TFWP to outsource jobs have done a great disservice to companies that legitimately need temporary workers to function in very tight labour markets – such as those in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Such employers truly do face acute skills shortages, and now will have to jump through the extra hoops of proving somehow that they eventually will have an entirely Canadian workforce. It’s like the teacher who penalizes everyone in class for the transgressions of the few, and the adjustments to the TFWP will add a layer of bureaucracy that will discourage some employers from using the program.

Alberta’s unemployment rate is 4.8%, compared with 7.2% for the country as a whole. Alberta’s number pretty much represents full employment, when you consider that there will always be a percentage of the economy that is between jobs, on maternity leave and so forth. That means employers here who want to expand – who want to take on more contracts, more employees and ultimately generate more economic activity – need the safety net of the TFWP. And things in Alberta are only going to get more difficult for employers.

Alberta, while having 10% of the nation’s population, receives 25% of all capital spending in the country. Capital expenditures for 2013 are expected to reach a record $101 billion, up by 2.4% over last year’s levels. Employers looking to take advantage of that activity now are hamstrung by the knee-jerk reaction of the Harper government.

This is not to say that the TFWP should take the place of immigration and citizenship programs that actually build a stable population of Canadians. In 2011, Alberta admitted almost twice as many temporary foreign workers as it did permanent residents. For the province’s own stability, it would be best if that ratio were reversed and, ultimately, best if the TFWP itself was temporary. But, for the time being, the TFWP is a crucial lifeline for Albertan businesses.

The move by Ottawa undoubtedly will play well in Ontario and Quebec, where most of the votes are and where the local economy is cool. Ironically, in Harper’s backyard of Alberta, this move will serve to exacerbate the acute skills shortages that employers in this province continue to experience in a hot economy.

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