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This article empirically investigates the role of import intermediaries in Canada and discusses how public policies can affect them. Among the main results is that intermediaries are shown to play a very different role with respect to manufacturers and retailers regarding differentiated and complex products, but their role is qualitatively the same across North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and non-NAFTA countries, and the share of intermediaries' imports is always boosted by a greater mass of small domestic manufacturers and retailers. These results suggest that import wholesalers play an important role in the Canadian economy, especially with respect to domestic manufacturers, and that policy-makers should be mindful of policy impacts on this sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temporary foreign worker programs are typically seen as short-term solutions to shortages of regional or occupational labour. During the past decade, Canadian regions experienced unequal economic growth, and some suffered from significant excess labour demand. The Canadian Temporary Foreign Worker Program was thus expanded and conditions to access it made easier. During the same period, the pattern of regional disparities in unemployment rates became more persistent. This paper shows that some of the persistence is due to the increased availability of temporary foreign workers. This suggests that policy makers did not price them correctly to avoid adverse effects on the Canadian labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]