Ottawa’s new rules create challenges

Fish processing companies facing extra costs, more logistics hiring temporary foreign workers

Marilyn Clarke’s job just got a little tougher.

The owner of Port to Port Immigration in Halifax helps connect East Coast businesses with temporary foreign workers, arranging travel and other logistics.

Last season was challenging, Clarke said, given the two-week quarantines that are part of Canada’s pandemic protocols.

This year, however, the details are a little more complicated, thanks to Ottawa’s recent decision to suspend all commercial flights from Mexico and the Caribbean and to limit international arrivals to four major airports.

Clarke said her clients are faced with the extra costs of using charter flights, which could be almost twice the cost of commercial flights, as well as the expense of arranging for a second flight to get workers to the East Coast after quarantine at their point of entry.

And there’s the additional expense of isolating in hotels in Toronto or Montreal.

Last season, she said, it cost about $2,000 for each worker for hotels and food for their two-week isolation. Government subsidies cover about $1,500 per worker.

In 2020, Clarke said, some hotels in Halifax provided allinclusive $80 nightly rates for foreign workers.

The cost of hotels in cities like Toronto and Montreal are likely to be much higher, she pointed out, and that will mean additional expense for the companies.

QUARANTINE

Clarke said her clients are hoping the federal government will tweak the rules and allow charter flights of foreign workers to fly directly to Atlantic Canada, to airports in the provinces where they will work.

Since they’ll have to quarantine no matter when they land, she said, it only makes sense to have them fly directly to the East Coast and start their two-week quarantine here.

Nat Richard agrees. He is the executive director for the Lobster Association of New Brunswick.

Richard points out that the quarantine protocol for foreign workers last season was quite rigorous.

“We had no COVID outbreaks in processing plants,” he said.

“Certainly it would be our preference to land those workers here.”

Richard said having the foreign workers stay in Ontario or Quebec, where COVID infection rates are much higher, is “counterintuitive . . . from a public health standpoint.”

Then there is the question of whether commercial flights would even be available to get those workers from Central Canada to the East.

“So, it could mean that we might have to hire a second charter.”

Richard said shellfish and other fish processors in the Atlantic region have been discussing the challenges with members of both levels of government, hoping to find a more feasible solution.

SNOW CRAB, LOBSTER SEASONS

They don’t have a lot of time. Snow crab fishing begins in April in some locations, while the summer lobster fishery gets underway in May.

Add in the two or more weeks of quarantine time, and companies will need to have flights and accommodations for those workers arranged by the end of March at the latest.

About 2,500 foreign workers arrive in Atlantic Canada each fishing season to work on assembly lines at processing plants. According to Clarke, the majority are employed in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.

“It’s essential that we do have these workers,” said Richard.

“They are critical to the processing sector. In many cases, some of them have been coming to Canada for a decade or more. They are highly skilled and are an important complement to our local workforce.”

He is optimistic that the issue facing East Coast employers will be resolved soon.

“I think there’s goodwill from all sides,” he told SaltWire.

“We completely understand that these are challenging circumstances for policy makers and we totally get that public health is paramount.

“We just are hoping that we can get creative to find a solution that is more workable for both (fishing and farming) sectors.”

During a recent funding announcement, Fisheries and Oceans Minister Bernadette Jordan acknowledged this year’s protocols for foreign workers are more challenging.

“We want to make sure we can get our temporary foreign workers here because they are very important to our sector,” she said, adding that her department will work with the federal departments of agriculture, transport and public safety “to make sure we can address this very valid concern we are hearing. We want to work with the provinces, with the (industry) sectors to make sure we get this right.”