As Canadian youth struggle to find employment, the country's Temporary Foreign Worker Program is drawing increased scrutiny.

“Recent figures underscore the urgency of this debate: As of July, youth unemployment (ages 15–24) sat at 14.6%, the highest level since 2010 outside of the pandemic, while the youth employment rate fell to 53.6%, the lowest since 1998 in non-pandemic years,” wrote Dr. Sylvain Charlebois in an opinion piece for the Toronto Sun.

“Earlier in the summer, students returning to the job market faced even steeper challenges, with unemployment hovering near 17–18%, setting records for that time of year.” 

Go Ad Free

Charlebois, known as “The Food Professor” on social media, joined Tuesday night's episode of The Ezra Levant Show to discuss this growing challenge and what steps could be taken to address it.

“We have a lot of talent that may have given up on the market,” Charlebois warned about the troubling youth employment rate. These young people are “standing on the sideline, and they're waiting for things to get better,” the professor said, adding these are individuals who are “staying at home” instead of being able to contribute economically, something that is “really just awful for the economy.”

Canada has suffered from “several bad years” of governance from the federal Liberals. “The focus was very much on other things than the economy,” Charlebois said.

Now, Canada's “economy is struggling, deeply,” he explained. “Many people are failing to see any really strong solution for the economy moving forward.”