New Canadian Live-in Caregiver Regulations Create An Easy “In” To Canada

A while back, we wrote about how the new Live in Caregiver rules are causing issues for Canadian employers. Now stories are coming out that are bearing our predictions true unfortunately.

The Canadian media has been picking up on several stories about Canadians being left in the dark by live-in caregivers they’ve sponsored to come to Canada. In one case, a live-in caregiver said she had nobody in Canada, yet one day the employer found a handful of her relatives and the police at his door, saying the live-in caregiver was being mistreated and was leaving. Because of the new rules introduced in April 2010, it’s easier for unscrupulous people who want to game to system to get into Canada and do so.

It usually costs employers between $3,000 and $5,000 in the beginning to hire a live-in caregiver when considering travel costs. Sometimes caregivers show up and leave after only a few weeks, while others never show up at all – but despite all of the horror stories in the news, these instances are still very rare.

According to the Association of Caregiver and Nanny Agencies Canada, shortly after the rules were introduced in April of last year the number of caregivers in Canada dropped by 70 per cent because of a lack of placement options.

New Rules To Protect Canadian Live-in Caregivers Leave Little Recourse For Employers

The new rules introduced by Citizenship and Immigration Canada last year included:

– Employers must pay for the caregiver’s health coverage until they could qualify for provincial health care.

– Employers must pay for the caregiver to come to Canada.

– Employers must create an air-tight contract that includes the duration of the contract, the caregiver’s duties, hours, accommodation and other factors.

Live-in Caregivers have been given a lot of protection with the latest rules, and employers should be extra diligent when deciding to hire a live-in caregiver. Employers are falling by the wayside slightly with the new protections offered, but one has to consider that the abuse some live-in caregivers have dealt with in the past makes these new rules necessary.

We are all for protecting foreign workers but it is also a two-way street: Canadians also have to be protected.