The federal government is proposing minimum housing standards for temporary foreign workers, but isn’t telling the public what they are.
Instead Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough and Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said they will be consulting provincial and territorial governments on the proposals from now until Dec. 22.
And during that time, the federal government will also be conducting a survey of workers and employers about housing.
There are about 50,000 to 60,000 temporary foreign workers coming to Canada every year.
The United Food and Commercial Workers Union estimates that about 1,300 of them tested positive for COVID-19.
In July the federal government provided $58.6 million for programs related to the temporary foreign workers.
Of that, $35 million was earmarked for improving health and safety on farms and in employee living quarters, and $16.2 million to “strengthen the employer inspections regime.”
