As part of a huge overhaul of the temporary foreign worker program, Minister of Employment and Social Development Jason Kenney lifted the moratorium on the program for the food service sector.
In a press conference, June 20, Kenney said the long list of changes is designed to limit use of the temporary foreign worker program, so that hiring temporary foreign workers becomes a “last resort” for business owners.
Kim Stark has seen the changes, and she is terrified about what they might mean.
Stark owns several small businesses in town, including the Bear’s Paw and Other Paw Bakeries. She said that while some of the changes might make sense on a national level, for certain Jasper businesses they don’t make sense at all.
Stark has been doing everything she can think of to attract Canadian employees to work for her, but has had little success; there are just some jobs that she can’t get Canadians to do. Because of this, about 30 per cent of her 25 employees are TFWs.
The new regulations state that by 2015, employers with more than 10 employees will not be allowed to have more than 10 per cent of their workforce as temporary foreign workers. For Stark that means she will only be allowed to keep 2-3 TWFs on staff - and she has no idea how she will fill the remaining positions.
“What is the government going to do for me when no one applies for the jobs?” she asked.
In his press conference, Kenney admitted the changes will make it tougher for small businesses to find employees, but he didn’t see that as a bad thing.
“I would say that is the objective. The objective is to encourage employers, small and large, to put Canadians first,” he said, speaking in French.
Because the changes are expansive, their long-term impacts on Jasper are difficult to predict. However, after a preliminary overview, Manager of the Jasper Park Chamber of Commerce Pattie Pavlov said she has some concerns.
For Pavlov, a major red flag is the increased cost of applying for a Labour Market Impact Analysis - the more stringent replacement to the Labour Market Opinions business used to have to get to hire temporary foreign workers. The cost of an LMIA is significantly higher: $1000, as opposed to the $275 for old LMOs. Pavlov said that new price will definitely impact certain businesses.
“The application was cost prohibitive at $275; $1000 is going to make it so much worse,” Pavlov said.
Kenney also announced that the government will no longer accept applications for entry-level jobs in certain industries in regions with an unemployment rate above six per cent, which Pavlov said likely won’t have an effect on Jasper.
Pavlov pointed out that the chamber only speaks for its members, but after her initial assessment she thinks the community won’t be too harshly affected.
She said there “are a lot of empty positions here in Jasper,” and while many managers have had to pick up extra shifts in the absence of TFWs, at this point none of the chamber’s members have been forced to close their doors.
Kenney said changes to the TFW program will force businesses to be more creative in their hiring, which will lead to more Canadians getting jobs.
“We hope that by tightening the program today we will encourage employers—including small business owners—to do more work within their communities to find and employ local Canadians that are unemployed,” whether that means increasing wages, investing more heavily in training, or putting more emphasis on hiring among groups that face obstacles to employment.
Stark believes she has already exhausted all possible Canadian employee pools, and Kenney’s suggestion she raise wages to attract workers isn’t feasible for small businesses like hers.
Increasing wages means a cut to profit margins, which means an increase in prices at her cafés. As a small business owner, she said, she shouldn’t have to work seven days a week to keep her store profitable, but restricted access to temporary foreign workers will likely mean just that.
“I’m one tiny business owner here in Jasper - I’m not rolling in it,” she said.
And while Stark and other business owners remain frustrated with the changes, Patrick Mooney, an outreach worker at Community Outreach Services in Jasper, said he thinks they might end up being a good thing.
He said he realizes the changes will make it more difficult for some businesses, but from some people’s perspectives that might not be so bad.
He said that through his work with COS it’s been “not unusual” for Canadians to come to him believing they were passed over for jobs in favour of TFWs. He said he knows “half a dozen individuals who didn’t get jobs,” for that apparent reason.
Stark said this perception is in large part a reflection of how broken the TFW system was.
Because the government has traditionally been very slow to approve LMO applications, employers have had to advertise their positions several months in advance.
For example, if Stark was looking for a summer employee, she might start placing ads for that job in November or December-even if she didn’t need the staff during the slow winter months-because approval to hire a temporary foreign worker takes so long.
If a Canadian applied for that job they would be essentially applying for a job that didn’t yet exist - leading to the perception they were being passed over, when in reality the work just didn’t exist at that time.
Mooney said he understands the issue is complicated, but at the end of the day “there’s people out there who need work,” and maybe the changes will help those people.
Stark said that while she is fine for now, when her employees’ LMOs start expiring this October, she could be in a lot of trouble.
“As I lose people I don’t know what I’m going to do - I’m out of ideas,” she said. “I really feel like my government is not listening to my needs right now.”
Trevor Nichols
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