New Brunswick seafood processor fined $90K over workplace conditions for migrant workers

The federal government has handed a $90,000 fine to Pêcheries LeBreton over insufficient efforts to prevent abusive workplace conditions for temporary foreign workers.

The decision comes just three months after the Federal Court quashed a previous record-breaking sanction on the lobster processing company, which operates on the Acadian Peninsula.

A spokesperson for Employment and Social Development Canada, which is responsible for the temporary foreign worker compliance regime, confirmed that the latest penalty stems from a “reconsideration” of the earlier fine.

“The most recent administrative monetary penalty issued to Pêcheries LeBreton et Fils ltée of $90,000 is the result of Employment and Social Development Canada’s reconsideration of non-compliance related to whether the employer made sufficient effort to ensure the workplace was free of abuse,” a federal government spokesperson said in a statement.

In April 2024, the feds banned Pêcheries LeBreton from hiring temporary foreign workers for two years and fined the company $365,750 for violating a number of migrant labour-related regulations. At the time, it was largest fine in the Temporary Foreign Worker Program’s history.

The company challenged that move in Federal Court, which found that the government’s decision lacked procedural fairness. In that December 2025 ruling, the court set aside part of the original penalty for further review.

The new fine was issued on March 25, according to a website where the government posts information on non-compliant employers.

That public database provides few details but indicates that Pêcheries LeBreton “didn’t put enough effort” into ensuring that its workplace was free from various forms of abuse.

It also indicates that the company is once again eligible to participate in the TFW Program and International Mobility Program. Pêcheries LeBreton didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The original $365,750 fine no longer appears on the non-compliance website.

Instead, it states that the company was fined $8,750 in April 2024 for failing to keep certain paperwork, for violating certain laws on hiring and recruitment, and for offering pay or working conditions that didn’t match the job offer.

In 2023, the company was fined $30,000, also for insufficient efforts to ensure a workplace free of abuse.

Ongoing lawsuit

A lawsuit filed by two Mexican migrant workers against Pêcheries LeBreton in 2024, alleging “widespread exploitation” is ongoing.

The workers allegedly experienced overcrowded, mold-infested living conditions and stolen wages, among other issues.

They travelled to Canada in April 2023 based on contracts offering them an average of 30 hours of work per week for six months at $16.50 per hour, according to a statement of claim.

However, there was very little work available at Pêcheries LeBreton, and the company eventually terminated their contracts early.

A response filed in small claims court by Pêcheries LeBreton in 2024 states, in part, that their employment began with the opening of the lobster season, not their arrival in Canada.

Factors including poor weather and unfavourable market conditions caused Pêcheries LeBreton to cease production in July 2023, according to the document.

Work eventually resumed, but a creditor later compelled the company to shut down operations again in August 2023.

The document states that their contracts were meant to comply with federal immigration rules.

Those contracts “therefore had a maximum duration of six months” but this wasn’t a “fixed and mandatory” period, the court filing states in English translation.

It also states, in part, that one of the workers breached his contract by allegedly taking part in “MMA-style” fights, which the employer later found on YouTube, according to the court filing.

The NB Media Co-op has reached out to a lawyer representing the company for comment.

Botsford Fisheries handed $66k fine

Pêcheries LeBreton is among seven companies in New Brunswick that Ottawa has sanctioned for non-compliance under the Temporary Foreign Worker or International Mobility Programs so far this year.

Among them is Botsford Fisheries Ltd., located in the rural community of Petit-Cap along the Northumberland Strait.

That company was fined $66,000 in March for violations including an inaccurate job description submitted in an application; for not providing documents requested by an inspector; and for not being “actively engaged in the business that the foreign national was hired to work.”

A publicly listed phone number for the company wasn’t in service by Wednesday.

Temporary Foreign Workers have “closed work permits,” meaning they are legally bound to a specific workplace and cannot seek employment elsewhere, except by applying for the Open Work Permit for Vulnerable Workers.

That program, introduced in 2019, has been met with criticism from advocates who say migrant workers are faced with a burdensome process to prove they face abuse, sometimes including harsh questioning from immigration officials.

Migrant justice groups have long maintained that temporary foreign worker schemes are inherently exploitative, creating a disposable underclass of low-wage workers.

New Brunswick’s Madhu Verma Migrant Justice Centre and other advocates have called for Ottawa to end the practice of issuing closed work permits and to provide open work permits or permanent resident status to all migrants upon arrival.

David Gordon Koch is a journalist with the NB Media Co-op. This reporting has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, via the Local Journalism Initiative. 

Tracy Glynn, co-founder of the Madhu Verma Migrant Justice Centre, is coordinating editor of the NB Media Co-op.