An individual from Ontario has admitted to wrongdoing and has been fined $70,000 for unlawfully hiring foreign laborers in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta. Kevin Kielty entered a guilty plea in March and, aside from the financial penalty, has been placed on a two-year probation and mandated to complete 50 hours of community service.
The inquiry, initiated by the Canada Border Services Agency and the RCMP, was triggered in 2022 following tips provided by the Ontario Provincial Police and Barrie Police Service. The investigation uncovered a scheme where foreign workers were being transported from Ontario to Alberta to engage in unauthorized employment within the hospitality sector at Banff National Park. This illicit operation was coordinated through an employment agency named One Team, which was overseen by Kielty.
Further investigations revealed that an additional 90 foreign nationals from Mexico were illicitly working at four resort hotels in the Banff and Jasper regions. Kielty faced charges in May 2024 for contravening the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act by employing and advising foreign workers not permitted to work in Canada.
Janalee Bell-Boychuk, the Canada Border Services Agency’s regional director general for the prairie region, highlighted the collaboration among various law enforcement agencies that led to this “successful conviction.” In a separate incident in November 2023, Kielty pleaded guilty to four counts of illegally hiring foreign workers in Ontario, resulting in an 18-month house arrest sentence.