LABOUR SHORTAGE DOUBTS
U of C prof says labour shortage is a fallacy
As thousands of youths lined up at a hiring fair, a U of C study has concluded the temporary foreign worker program should be scaled back.
The federal temporary foreign worker program should be scaled back in favour of better preparing Canadians to fill the nation’s workforce, says the author of a new University of Calgary study.
Kevin McQuillan, a professor at the university’s school of public policy, calls the notion of a general labour shortage “a fallacy,” though he concedes certain industries and regions — including Alberta — have a legitimate need for temporary foreign workers.
“Alberta, and Saskatchewan to some extent, are at one end of the spectrum ... and one of the reasons I’m not a supporter of ending the temporary foreign worker program,” McQuillan said Tuesday.
In 2012, the federal government admitted 213,516 temporary foreign workers to the country, including 35,615 in Alberta.
In all, there were 338,189 temporary foreign workers in Canada at the end of 2012, with the 68,319 in Alberta behind only Ontario and B.C.
Employers across the board in Alberta, from highly skilled trades in the oil and gas industry to service industry employers who run restaurants and gas stations, have said they need temporary foreign workers to fill positions they can’t find Canadians for.
“The temporary foreign worker program has been a vital lifeline for small and medium size businesses,” said Richard Truscott, Alberta director of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
But the program has recently been dogged by controversy, prompting the government to make changes.
Last month, it was revealed the Royal Bank of Canada had contracted with a supplier to provide IT assistance, resulting in the elimination of Canadian jobs while the new supplier brought in foreign workers to fill them.
The government announced last week it was scrapping a provision that allowed employers to pay temporary foreign workers up to 15 per cent less than the prevailing wage for a high-skilled occupation if they could demonstrate that’s what Canadian employees in same the job at the same location were making.
As well, the government suspended a fast-track approval process for employers with an established track record of successful temporary foreign worker applications.
The Alberta Federation of Labour says the fast-track stream was meant to speed the admission of highly skilled labour, but instead service industry employers were using it to bring in temporary foreign workers for low-wage jobs.
The labour group opposes the temporary foreign worker program in any form and has repeatedly called for it to be shut down.
“It’s being used by an increasing number of employers as a first choice, as opposed to a last resort,” AFL president Gil McGowan said.
Although employers in some Alberta industries are clamouring for workers, McQuillan said his research found Canada as a whole doesn’t have a labour shortage: there’s a lack of workers
The temporary foreign worker program has been a vital lifeline for ... businesses RICHARD TRUSCOTT
in certain sectors or geographic regions and too many in others. In New Brunswick, for example, the number of unemployed has fluctuated between 30,000 and 40,000 since 2002. Over the same 10-year period, despite that unemployment, the number of temporary foreign workers admitted to New Brunswick has increased to nearly 3,000 from only 500 a decade ago.
“What we are finding is what I call a ‘labour mismatch,’ ” he said.
Federal immigration reforms have gone some way toward addressing this problem by linking permanent residents’ admission to Canada to employment prospects and proficiency in either English or French, McQuillan said.
“I think we’ve begun to do some significant things along those lines,” he said.
McQuillan said creating more opportunities for permanent residency for skilled workers is a better longterm solution for everyone, rather than the “quick and dirty route” of continuing to increase the number of temporary foreign workers, who can stay in Canada a maximum of four years.
But the issue is multi-faceted, McQuillan said, and immigration policy alone can’t address it.
Provincial governments, which have authority over post-secondary education, should examine ways to better align programs being offered with the demands of the labour force, McQuillan suggests.
For their part, employers should do a better job training young workers entering the labour force, said McQuillan, adding there’s “disturbing evidence” on-the-job training is in serious decline among Canadian employers.
“To my mind, that’s a serious issue for our economy,” he said.
One of the factors contributing to mismatches in certain industries and regions described by McQuillan is a decrease in Canadians who move within the country to find work, he said.
While governments and employers have their roles in solving the problem, individuals should also be “bringing expectations in line with reality,” when choosing an occupation or where to live, McQuillan said.