Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) should come to an end, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said at a Wednesday press conference alongside immigration critic Michelle Rempel Garner.

In effort to raise awareness of abuses in the program, Rempel Garner has been highlighting job postings searching for temporary foreign workers — jobs that should be going to Canadians.

“The TFWP was created over 40 years ago to address short-term labour shortages in a narrow range of industries and regions,” the Calgary Nose Hill MP wrote in an op-ed published by the Toronto Sun. “But over the last decade, Liberals allowed it to morph into a mechanism for systemic abuse of workers, wage growth suppression and elimination of entry-level job opportunities for Canadians.”

On Wednesday's Buffalo Roundtable, the panel weighed in on the flawed TFWP and gave credit to the Conservatives for pushing to fix the problem.

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“She's showing you the complete and total abuse of the system,” said Sheila Gunn Reid. “And I think she's right; the system is so broken it cannot be fixed.”

Wyatt Claypool, editor of the National Telegraph, said credit should be given to another Conservative MP, Jamil Jivani, “because he was the quarterback” on the issue. “Right after the election, [Jivani] helped inject some confidence back into the party by immediately calling for an end to the TFW program.”

Workers at typically Canadian businesses like Tim Hortons are “all being replaced by temporary workers,” said Rebel reporter Angelica Toy. “For those jobs to just be given to new immigrants, is honestly insulting.”

After young Canadians were given handouts from the government during COVID, the government then “used that as a pretense for bringing all the temporary foreign workers in,” added Rebel host Lise Merle. “What we need is to go backwards now, get our young people their jobs back and take the country back.”