Bill C-12 must not make things worse for migrant workers
Toronto – February 19, 2026 – UFCW joins a growing number of Canadians in having concerns about Bill C-12, the Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act. While the bill is framed as a measure to strengthen border and system “integrity,” several of its provisions raise serious concerns about their potential impact on food workers with precarious status.
Migrant workers make critical contributions to Canada’s food production system. Every year, thousands of workers come to Canada to help do the work that keeps the country fed. Yet despite this, migrant worker communities have long experienced mistreatment, precarity and vulnerability as detailed in UFCW Canada’s 2025 Report on Migrant Workers in the Agri-food Sector (The Status of Migrant Agricultural Workers in Canada 2025).
UFCW is concerned that Bill C-12 will further stack the system against food workers with precarious status by introducing:
Mass permit cancellation powers: The Immigration Minister would gain authority to cancel permits for entire groups without due process—including revoking permanent residence applications already submitted. Migrant workers could lose their status overnight with no meaningful recourse.
A one-year refugee deadline: The bill would bar individuals who have been in Canada for more than one year from making a refugee claim—even if conditions in their home country deteriorate after arrival. The provision applies retroactively to June 2020, raising serious concerns under Canada’s humanitarian obligations.
Privacy protections removed: Expanded information sharing: The bill allows broad information sharing about migrants across government bodies. Undocumented workers who assert labour rights could face deportation if employers report them to border enforcement authorities.
Immigration system integrity and worker protection are not opposing goals. True integrity means addressing the conditions that enable exploitation by reducing precarity, expanding real labour mobility, strengthening permanent residence pathways, and ensuring transparency and due process when government discretion is exercised.
UFCW will continue to advocate for immigration policies that reduce precarity rather than deepen it, for protections workers can access in practice, and for reforms that keep worker rights at the centre. Bill C-12 may be presented as a border measure, but its consequences will be felt every day in fields, greenhouses, processing plants, and rural communities across Canada. A strong immigration system is one that includes the people who help keep this country running — not one that pushes them further to the margins.
