Honey Bee Manufacturing says it cannot find enough local labourers who are willing to work in the remote area
FRONTIER, Sask. — Henry Fehr describes the location of Honey Bee Manufacturing in very concrete terms.
It’s 100 miles from everywhere, he said, referring to the location in Frontier.
“One hundred miles from the nearest traffic light, 100 miles from the nearest Tim Hortons, 100 miles from the nearest McDonald’s and 100 miles from Wal-Mart.”
For an employer of about 200, in a village with a population of 372, that is a problem.
Fehr is the human resources manager for the company. He said without employees he finds through the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program the company would have a tough time finding the skilled labour it needs.
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This spring, 38 employees from the Philippines were working at the plant, which makes combine headers.
Others are from Ukraine, Pakistan, India and Syria. There have been workers from Russia, Central America, Brazil, France and Turkey.
“We have our own English as a Second Language program most times,” Fehr said.
He personally greets each family at the airport when they arrive, takes them for groceries and drives them to their new home. Housing is free for the first while until the new employee has had time to settle in.
Through the SINP, the employer covers the recruitment costs.
“All of the people that we hire will get permanent residency,” Fehr said.
General manager Jamie Pegg said the decision was made eight years ago to increase hiring from other countries to have enough welders, assembly line workers and engineers.
“The bottom line is we did not have enough people with the right skill sets,” he said.
Pegg said part of the issue is generational.
“Over the last five years, the population of the area has stayed about the same,” he said. “Over the previous 20 years, there was a generation of people that moved away.”
The energy sector took a lot of available workers, and as agriculture became more profitable family members returned to the farm.
While about 80 percent of workers are still local, the manufacturer could not function without its immigrant workers.
They have been a boon in many ways. The 2016 census figures showed a population increase in Frontier of 21 over 2011 numbers.
The Filipinos have thrown themselves into Canadian winters and their new lifestyle.
The school population is stable and locals have welcomed the opportunity to learn about new cultures and customs.
“We made the choice to look to an area that we foresaw was going to form a community,” Pegg said.
Still, not everyone stays. Fehr said the Filipinos place a high priority on education and some will leave for that reason.
Honey Bee may have brought the workers to Canada but they can’t make them stay with the company after they have permanent residency status.
“Human resources is a challenge pretty well everywhere today,” Pegg said, geography notwithstanding.
They are seeing a small shift in that some people are looking to get out of the cities and would consider moving to Frontier.
“Working here in some ways is a lifestyle choice,” Pegg said. “There are those who want that peace and quiet.”
For those coming all the way from the Philippines, it’s more like a leap of faith. Fehr said he will often arrive at the airport and meet a couple and a child with just three suitcases to start a whole new life.
“Those people are on an adventure,” he said. “They’ve seen Canada as the place to do that.”
