Rustad says he supports Poilievre’s plan to abolish temporary foreign worker program

BC Conservative Leader John Rustad has reversed his stance on the temporary foreign worker program. Days earlier, he stated British Columbians need the program to protect the province’s agriculture.

BC Conservative Leader John Rustad has reversed his stance on the temporary foreign worker program. Days earlier, he stated British Columbians need the program to protect the province’s agriculture and tourism industries.

Rustad reversed his position on the TFW program after blasting B.C. Premier David Eby for saying the feds should cancel or significantly reform the program.

In response to a statement, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre posted on X, Rustad now says he supports the Conservative plan to abolish the program, saying a standalone program makes his previous concerns moot for the agriculture industry.

“I support Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative plan to abolish the TFW program. Pierre’s Conservatives have smartly suggested to create a separate, standalone program for agriculture, which addresses concerns I’ve heard from farmers,” Rustad said in a post on X. “These normal Canadian jobs should go to Canadians.”

Rustad did not respond to True North’s request for comment Friday about his original stance that the program was necessary because tourism destinations such as Whistler were in “desperate need of TFWs.”

“Out-of-work Canadians could do these jobs,” Poilievre’s post said. “Yet the Carney government is allowing corporations to hire temporary foreign workers.”

The post included several listings for TFW jobs, paying anywhere from $25 an hour to $110,000 annually. The minimum wage in B.C. is $17.85 per hour.

The image taken from the front page of the National Post included six such listings in B.C.

A flagperson with All Way Traffic Inc. in Surrey, B.C., is offered $25 an hour.

B.C.’s youth unemployment for those aged 15 to 24 reached 12.1% in July, according to Ycharts, an aggregate using Statistics Canada data. The national rate was 14.6% in the same month, according to Statistics Canada.

Prime Minister Mark Carney originally rebuffed the Conservative plan on Wednesday saying the program still has a role, while reiterating the Liberal plan to reduce non-permanent residents in Canada from 7 per cent of the population in Canada to under five per cent 2027.

“When I talk to businesses around the country…their number one issue is tariffs. And their number two issue is access to temporary foreign workers,” Carney said on Wednesday.Poilievre blasted Carney’s response on Thursday, saying he should be working for working-class Canadians and not taking cues from “corporate lobbyists.”

On Friday, Carney said his government would put in measures to make changes to the program and reaffirmed that the Liberals intend to “adjust” the number of workers from the TFW program and change the compilation of immigrants from each of Canada’s immigration streams.