A New Brunswick seafood processing company has been barred from employing temporary foreign workers for a decade and fined the maximum penalty possible for violating rules of the program.
Bolero Shellfish Processing Inc. in Saint-Simon, N.B., was fined the maximum financial penalty and had the ban imposed on Sept. 17.
“To date, this is the biggest penalty ever issued by the department, because any mistreatment of workers or misuse of the program will not be tolerated,” Employment and Social Development Canada said in a statement.
The department says the employer was issued the penalty due to failing to comply with federal and provincial labour laws, and failing to provide a workplace that is free of abuse.
The penalty was one of several imposed by the federal government last month on multiple companies that were found to have violated its temporary foreign worker program.
Employment and Social Development Canada conducted 1,435 employer compliance inspections in the 2024-25 fiscal year and found 10 per cent were non-compliant.
It collected $4.9 million in non-compliance fines during this fiscal period compared to the previous year of $2.1 million and banned 36 employers from the program, a “threefold increase” from 2023-24.
Under the rules, employers who hire temporary foreign workers are required to provide safe, healthy and dignified working conditions.
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Bolero Shellfish is listed twice on a Social Development Canada database of non-compliant employers.
Prior to last month’s penalty, the company faced a $2,000 penalty for similar infractions, but was deemed to still be eligible for the program.
In that instance, the company was found to have “pay or conditions that did not match, or were not better than, what was listed on the offer of employment, or the job was not the same as what was listed on the offer.”
It also was deemed to not have put in “enough effort to make sure the workplace was free of” physical, sexual, psychological or financial abuse or reprisal.
In last month’s decision, the company faced the same reasoning, but also was found to have broke federal, provincial or territorial laws for “hiring and recruiting employees in the province or territory where the foreign national worked.”
Sogelco International Inc., the parent company of Bolero, said in a statement to Global News that it “categorically rejects” the federal government’s decision and will challenge it in court.
“Bolero Shellfish categorically rejects the conclusions of the federal government, which do not reflect the reality of its practices nor its commitment to the well-being of employees hired under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program,” the statement said.
As the penalty faces a potential court challenge by the company, groups representing migrants are urging the federal government to use the fines collected from non-compliant companies to compensate workers.
“There are no reparations under the compliance enforcement system, which is why we’re calling on the federal government to actually distribute these fines to the workers who were abused and the workers who were exploited,” said Syed Hussan, executive director for Migrant Workers Alliance for Change.
Last year, the federal government implemented changes to the temporary foreign worker program to make it harder to get a permit.
In its report on Monday, the government said the changes resulted in a 50 per cent overall reduction in applications and 70 per cent in the low-wage stream.
While restrictions have reduced applications and use of the program, groups like the Madhu Verma Migrant Justice Centre says the federal government needs to do more.
“We do want the government to take real action and that also includes inspections,” said Tracy Glynn, founder of the centre.
“There needs to be proactive, unannounced inspections to catch abuses. It can’t be left to migrant workers to make the complaint. The burden shouldn’t be put on them when they are already too afraid to report the abuses.”
—with files from Global News’ Suzanne Lapointe
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
