Human resource managers from around the region gathered in Hinton last week to gauge how recent changes to the temporary foreign worker program will affect their businesses.
The changes came into effect July 31 and include a new $275 processing fee, language restrictions, new advertising requirements and additional questions on the Labour Market Opinion (LMO) application.
The changes were made to ensure that Canadians and permanent residents have first dibs on Canada’s jobs.
Representatives from Mountain Park Lodges and Best Western Jasper Inn and Suites were among the group, Oct. 10. The session, which had speakers from the federal and provincial government, highlighted the changes and the process of obtaining temporary foreign workers.
Howard Jones, senior development officer for the temporary foreign worker program, explained that the program is meant to ensure Canadian employers never have to turn down work.
“We want you to be able to develop your business and grow, and if you can’t find anyone in the local labour market, we would rather that you bring in a temporary foreign worker than turn down the business,” he said.
To bring in a temporary foreign worker, an employer needs a positive LMO from Service Canada.
To receive one, an employer has to show that it has advertised and made honest attempts to find Canadians or permanent residents to fill the vacant position. And within those advertisements, the employer has to list a wage and minimum number of hours, as well as a thorough job description.
“Our role is to review your efforts in that regard,” said Jones, “and confirm that it’s not really realistic for you to find a Canadian to do the job.
“When you’re able to do that, we issue a positive Labour Market Opinion to be used by a person of your choosing, a person you’ve recruited in support of their application for a work permit.”
A foreign worker applies for their own work permit, which is occupation, location and employer specific, and it is then used with an employer’s positive LMO to bring the worker into the country.
To renew a work permit—which is usually valid for one year—the worker also needs a new LMO.
This is also the case if an employee is being promoted, “because there may have been a Canadian who was able to do that manager’s job and they weren’t around when you offered that initial position,” explained Jones. “So we need to go through that whole process again.”
Around the topic of promotions, there were many questions from people who were concerned about busy seasons, when everyone takes on extra duties to keep businesses running smoothly.
Although not an issue, Jones said, “be careful about that because if it starts looking like another job description entirely ... then that would be a concern for us.
“It’s not wrong to have an occasional outside duty; I mean, my job description includes “other duties as assigned”—that’s the way the world works.
“So we don’t have activity police that will come and say ‘this person is a room cleaner and one night you had them shift a chair into the banquet hall at the end of the night.’ That’s not a big issue.”
Also of concern to the group is the time it takes for LMOs and work permits to be processed, especially considering there is now an application fee that didn’t formerly exist.
“I’m wondering where the justification is [for that fee],” said one man. “In my own case, with 80 temporary workers, I had a program that cost me nothing for the last seven years and it’s costing me $11,000 this year, just to keep the people I have, and yet the service that I receive is no better than it was a year ago; if anything it’s worse.”
Jones explained that the fee is there to pay for the processing of the application. “The government isn’t actually making any more revenue off it than it takes to operate the program.”
He also noted that this year there is a lot more paperwork to look through because of the suspension of the accelerated LMO process—another of the changes that came into effect earlier this year. The program would recognize an employer’s past compliance with the program and accept their attestations and approve the application before the detailed review was complete. That would allow employers to get the people they need when they need them.
“The language around that was very deliberate,” said Jones. “They did not cancel [the accelerated process], they temporarily withdrew it.
“That implies something like it or it will come back.”
For now, it’s “first come, first served” for employers seeking positive LMOs and the number of applications is constantly growing.
“This program has grown tremendously and there is no cap and there’s no limit. There’s a limit in terms of how quickly staff can work, but we’re not working to a quota, we’re not working to a cap.
“Really, what matters is can the employer demonstrate the need?”
Nicole Veerman
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