Leaders in some of British Columbia’s rural communities are calling on the provincial government to support changes to the temporary foreign worker program or businesses will have to start shutting their doors.
Tiffany Hetenyi, executive director of the Fort St. John and District Chamber of Commerce, says business owners tell her they will have to start reducing their hours, or close for good, because of staffing shortages.
The federal government in March announced changes to the temporary foreign worker program meant to benefit employers in rural communities struggling to fill jobs, but provinces have to opt into the program.
The chamber is one of 10 B.C. business groups that wrote to Premier David Eby in September, asking his government to support the federal temporary foreign worker program.
Fort St. John and the City of Dawson Creek in northeastern B.C. committed to sending their own letters to Eby and Jobs Minister Ravi Kahlon, asking that the province accept the changes that would allow employers to hire more foreign workers.
Brian Boresky, who operates McDonald’s franchises in both cities, asked for help, saying he tried to hire locals, but a limited labour pool and housing and transportation shortages mean it’s getting harder to stay open.
Kyle MacDonald, a Dawson Creek city councillor who owns and operates two Tim Hortons restaurants, said the employee pool is shallow in northern B.C.
“We do not have the numbers we need. My own personal experience, we will go six months, eight months, 10 months even between receiving applications from local residents, Canadians, permanent residents,” he said.
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Dawson Creek is one of the communities participating in the Rural Community Immigration Pilot, which offers permanent residency to skilled workers in rural and remote communities.
Hetenyi said they received around 300 applications for the program and 60 approvals.
“Businesses only get one application per year. So, some of them have probably five or six employees that they’re looking to keep that have been here for years,” she said. “We only get one recommendation per business.”
The Sept. 24 letter to Eby came after comments he made earlier in the month about how the foreign-worker program should be shut down or reformed.
The letter included an appeal for Eby to improve the program but keep it alive for employers “who genuinely need it.”
If a province agrees with the federal government changes it would allow rural employers in certain areas to keep their current number of temporary foreign workers and increase that share from 10 to 15 per cent of their workforce.
B.C.’s Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills said it’s reviewing the changes because the province wasn’t consulted before the announcement, and that it would have more to say “in the coming days.”
“While we acknowledge that employers and businesses in rural communities can find it challenging to recruit workers, the province believes the Temporary Foreign Worker Program is not a long-term solution to these labour market challenges,” the ministry said in an emailed statement.
It said the program increases the risk of abuse and exploitation because the workers rely on a single employer, and it does not provide a pathway to permanent residency to people already in B.C.
Hetenyi said the province should opt into the program’s changes to keep businesses in operation.
She said Fort St. John is having a particularly hard time keeping workers such as bank clerks and food service and agriculture workers.
MacDonald said the increase in temporary workers granted by the federal government’s changes would allow businesses to keep their current staff, but it’s just a start.
“We need to see a lot more to be able to continue to provide the service we want to,” he said.
Mary Polak, CEO of the BC Care Providers Association, said temporary workers fill staffing shortages at care homes that would otherwise negatively affect seniors.
“Our need for those workers is extremely important. And any reduction, any slowdown in our ability to access those workers comes at a cost,” she said.
Polak said the government should address problems they’ve identified with the foreign worker program, but not eliminate it, because it provides necessary workers for the care sector.
MacDonald said he hopes Eby understands that rural economies have different needs compared with urban areas.
“So many small businesses depend on these workers that if we aren’t able to keep these workers, we’re going to close,” he said. “And the small proportion of local Canadians that we have working for us, they’re going to lose their jobs as well.”
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