Canada’s meat processing industry is “very concerned” about changes made to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, says Ron Davidson of the Canadian Meat Council.
The federal government unveiled reforms to the program June 20, including a 10 percent cap on the proportion of a workforce that can be low-wage temporary foreign workers.
“The cap will significantly restrict access to the TFWP, while ensuring that Canadians are always considered first for available jobs, reducing employer reliance on the program and increasing wages offered to Canadians,” the government said in a news release.”
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The federal government said the program changes, including the cap, fee increases and reduction in the period a foreign worker can remain in Canada, do not apply to primary agriculture. Feedlot operations are included in the exemption.
Davidson, director of international trade, government and media relations for the meat council, said it could be challenging for some processors to get under the 10 percent cap because the industry cannot convince Canadians to work at slaughter plants.
“We have tried to recruit Canadians, extensively and constantly” he said.
“It’s particularly a problem for the rural areas, where the plants are located…. We don’t know more what we can do to recruit Canadians.”
Employment and social development minister Jason Kenney said the changes are necessary to ensure Canadians are “first in line for available jobs.”
Davidson said the meat industry supports a crackdown on employers who abuse the program, but the proposed changes could affect capacity and production at Canadian meat packing plants.
“The changes announced were clearly substantial and significant for the meat industry. We are concerned and we’re trying to organize a meeting (with the government) to get a bit more clarification on how some of these rules are being interpreted.”
Davidson said the meat industry also asked the government for an exemption.
“Feeders did get the extension (exemption), so they’re now part of primary agriculture,” he said.
“In our meetings (with government), we had suggested this was a value chain problem for the livestock and meat industry…. If the plants aren’t able to run at capacity … it has an impact right through the whole value chain.”
Kenney and many critics of the TFW program have said some companies are too dependent on foreign workers, and employers should raise wages to attract more Canadians.
Claude Vielfaure, executive vice-president of Hylife, which produces 1.4 million pigs a year and operates a pork processing plant in Neepawa, Man., said Canada’s pork industry has to compete globally and pay wages appropriate to the region and sector.
