By Peter O’Nell, Vancouver Sun | Link to Article
The flow of low-wage temporary foreign workers to B.C. is expected to be slashed by close to half under sweeping reforms unveiled by the Harper government.
By Peter O’Nell, Vancouver Sun | Link to Article
The flow of low-wage temporary foreign workers to B.C. is expected to be slashed by close to half under sweeping reforms unveiled by the Harper government.
The program has been plagued by abuse and controversy. Ottawa’s remedy includes sharply boosting processing fees for employers, allowing the use of foreign workers in low-wage jobs only in areas with unemployment below six per cent, and banning companies from filling more than 10 per cent of their workforce with temporary foreign workers. That means an employer with 20 employees wouldn’t be able to hire more than two low-wage temporary foreign workers.
“This is not tinkering, this is not cosmetic,” Employment Minister Jason Kenney said Friday. “These are profound, comprehensive, fundamental reforms to the program.”
That latter step alone is expected to reduce the number of low-wage entries into the Canadian workforce from a little over 31,000 last year to fewer than 15,000 within three years as the limits are gradually phased in — a 52 per cent decline.
In B.C. the stream of low-wage workers will go from 5,227 to 2,865, a 45-per-cent drop.
One B.C. business leader said some companies over-relying on foreigners may have to cut hours of operation, perhaps even shut down.
“There will be some casualties,” said Ian Tostenson, president of the B.C. Restaurant & Foodservices Association, whose membership is one of the top users of low-wage temporary foreign workers.
The program has triggered allegations of abuse and lax government administration involving McDonald’s franchises in Victoria, coal mines being constructed in the B.C. northeast, and construction projects in the province using Irish workers coming in under a temporary work via a separate program that requires relatively few bureaucratic hurdles.
Both Tostenson and Greg D’Avignon, president of the B.C. Business Council, said they understood the Harper government — which presided over a sharp increase in the flow of low-wage workers since 2006 — was taking a political beating over the various abuses and had to act.
But they said they hope the government will reconsider a rule that will prevent employers from using the program in areas with unemployment rates above six per cent.
D’Avignon said that could be a problem especially in the service sectors of regions like northwestern B.C., which is heading into an expected growth spurt due to the liquefied natural gas industry.
And Tostenson said a tourist-friendly community like Kimberly, which struggles to find low-wage workers during the busy ski and summer seasons, will also face hardship.
B.C.’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 6.1 per cent in May, up from 5.8 per cent in April, suggesting many areas of the province may be off-limits to the program.
Statistics Canada provides regional breakdowns, but they are not seasonally-adjusted. Using those figures, only the B.C. Southwest (Greater Vancouver, Fraser Valley, Sunshine Coast and Squamish-Lillooet), with a rate of 5.6 per cent, was below the six per cent threshold that would allow low-wage foreign workers.
B.C. Jobs Minister Shirley Bond said Friday her government will be doing a detailed study of the new rules to assess their effects on the province.