Reduction in temporary foreign workers will hurt N.L.'s tourism industry, say advocates

A tightening of the rules on the use of temporary foreign workers in Canada is raising concerns in Newfoundland and Labrador, with some saying it will be especially painful in rural parts of the province.

The changes will result in "significant hardship" for seasonal businessesand those dependent on the brief tourism trade, said Richard Alexander.

"It's an incredibly important program for rural, remote and tourist areas where there's just not a labour market. So that's our main concern with it," said Alexander, who speaks for Restaurants Canada, a lobby group that advocates for the food service industry.

He noted that restaurants in rural areas like the Northern Peninsula and parts of Labrador depend on temporary foreign workers, or TFWs, and making it harder to access that pool of foreign workers could have devastating consequences.

"What you will see is hours cutting back. And some businesses [will say]this is just too much work. It's too expensive, up to $14,000 [in fees and other costs]for every temporary foreign worker. They'll just closeshop," he said.

Businesses are still trying to understand the impacts of Monday's announcement by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, added Wanda Cuff-Young.

"As we assess this, we see that sectors in the hospitality and service will be the highest impacted," said Cuff-Young, the co-owner of a St. John's based recruitment and immigration firm called Work Global Canada.

• Trudeau announces reduction in temporary foreign workers, suggests more immigration changes to come

The TFW program is designedto be used only when qualified Canadians and permanent residents are not able to fill job vacancies. In recent years, there's been a historic surge in the number of temporary workers, and some labour experts have blamed this trend for the increase in unemployment for immigrants and young Canadians.

In response, the federal Liberals announced this week that rules they loosened during the COVID-19 pandemic will be tightened in order to slash the number of TFWs by roughly 65,000.

"It's not fair to Canadians struggling to find a good job, and it's not fair to those temporary foreign workers, some of whom are beingmistreated and exploited," said Trudeau.

The TFW program has been used to circumvent hiring talented workers in Canada, addedRandy Boissonnault, the federal employment minister.

Effective Sept. 26, employers in areas where the unemployment rate is six per cent or higher (the July unemployment rate in Newfoundland and Labrador was 8.1 per cent, according to Statistics Canada)will not be able to hire low-wage TFWs. Also, employers will no longer be allowed to hire more than 10 per cent of their total workforce through the TFW program.

There will be exceptions, however, for sectors such as agriculture,foodandseafoodprocessing, construction and health care.

Currently, the maximum duration of employment for workers hired through the low-wage TFW programis two years, but that will now be reduced to one year.

According to federal data, there were nearly 84,000 low-wage TFWs admitted to Canada last year, up from just under 16,000 in 2016.

Cuff-Young said her office was receiving a steady flow of calls Tuesday from employers worried about the fallout from these changes, and she's planning to bringmany of them together on Thursday for a discussion on the topic.

Cuff-Young said employers may have to turn to other programs to fill their labour needs, such as the provincial nominee program, though she said this may make it more expensive for employers to fill jobs.

"The price of goods in a restaurant are going to increase," said Cuff-Young.

Richard Alexander, meanwhile, wants political leaders to take another look at the rules.

"I think it was a very quick response from government to political pressure and we're going to be consulting and working with government to try and get them to have some carve-outs for rural, remote and tourist areas," he said.

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