Business owner sounds alarm over changes to program
A P.E.I. employer is worried about the implications a federal cap on temporary foreign workers might have on his business.
Marc Schurman, who owns Atlantic Grown Organics, a vegetable farm, said he relies on temporary foreign workers for most of his farm’s workforce. Recently, the federal government announced it’s putting a cap on the number of temporary foreign workers that employers can bring into the country.
“It's worrisome. It's hard to know what that will mean for us directly,” said Schurman.
Post-pandemic, the economy had low unemployment rates but high labour shortages, which made it challenging for some employers to fill vital roles. The Temporary Foreign Worker Program saw a surge in demand due to this labour shortage, prompting policy changes to allow small businesses to temporarily hire foreign workers.
FEDERAL CAP
Federal Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault, who made the announcement on March 21, alongside Marc Miller, the minister responsible for Immigration Refugee Citizenship Canada, said that economic problem has been addressed
“Some of these measures are no longer needed. We're actually seeing signs that Canadian permanent resident workers are eager to find jobs to help make ends meet. And seeing this change, we know it's now time to ease our reliance on foreign workers and begin ramping down certain temporary measures that we put in place in 2022.”
For companies to hire a foreign temporary worker, they have to complete a labour market impact assessment (LMIA) to show they are unable to hire Canadians or a permanent resident worker to fill those positions every six months instead of every 12 months.
HIRING TEMPORARY FOREIGN WORKER
Schurman said finding locals in P.E.I. to work at farm jobs has been challenging, and his application to hire temporary foreign workers demonstrates that.
“I think over the generations, people just get moved away from wanting to work directly in labour jobs and agriculture. So, the labour pool is not available.”
Employers who use temporary foreign workers will have their hiring capped at 20 per cent except for construction and health-care sectors, which will be capped at 30 per cent.
This does not affect the agriculture sector employers as there is no cap on how many temporary workers, they can bring in provided they have an LMIA to show they are unable to hire Canadians or a permanent resident worker to fill those positions. The federal government said starting May 1, it wants employers to explore every option before they apply for an LMIA, including recruiting asylum seekers with valid work permits as additional staff before they can bring in temporary foreign workers.
Other sectors experiencing seasonal demand, like in seafood processing and tourism, will continue to benefit from a one-time a year seasonal cap exemption for work duration up to 270 days.
Ryan Macrae, migrant worker program co-ordinator with Cooper Institute, said the federal government's decision is symbolic of the scapegoating of migrants for many of the country's problems.
“Rather than actually addressing some of the issues in our economy and our society, the government can just blame migrants, which is an easy tactic that's used for ages.”
Macrae, said the recent change is unlikely to have a significant impact on the number of temporary foreign workers in P.E.I. This is because most foreign workers are employed in the agriculture sector, which is unlikely to see a reduction as long as employers can demonstrate their inability to hire locals. However, he expressed his desire to see some new changes.
“I would rather see no cap,” he said. “I think that what we would like to see is that any temporary workers who come through, that they get permanent residency upon arriving in the country. Because whenever they do get here, they have the closed work permits – oftentimes one employer – and it makes it difficult for them to speak out against workplace abuses.”