Seasonal agricultural worker program
The meat processing sector has avoided many of the problems that other industries faced when the deadline arrived requiring temporary foreign workers to leave Canada.
Rory McAlpine, senior vice-president of government and industry relations for Maple Leaf Foods, said the meat industry recruits foreign workers and then transitions them to permanent residency status.
As a result, Maple Leaf didn’t lose employees because of the April 1 deadline.
“We don’t have any workers that are immediately in jeopardy because they’re all in a state of having been approved, or are in the application process (for permanent residency),” McAlpine said.
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“The four year limit begins at the point employment begins. So we’ve got various workers … in year one or two and they’re not in jeopardy. They’re working on getting their English language (training) and they will be moved into the permanent residency process.”
The federal government changed the Temporary Foreign Worker Program in 2011, introducing what is known as the “four and four” rule. As of April 1, 2011, foreign workers could stay for four years but would then have to leave the country for four years before returning to Canada.
The federal government introduced more restrictions to the program last June, including a 10 percent cap on the percentage of foreign employees at a company.
The government took the action following media reports of companies abusing the program. Three McDonald’s restaurants in British Columbia allegedly gave more shifts to foreign workers, while a restaurant in Weyburn, Sask., fired long-time waitresses to hire foreign labour.
The program restrictions will affect Alberta more so than other provinces. The federal government expects Alberta to lose more than 8,000 temporary foreign workers by summer 2016. Many of those employees work at restaurants and hotels.
McAlpine said last year’s changes have hampered the meat industry’s model of transitioning foreign workers to permanent residency. After conducting a labour market assessment to demonstrate a need, companies received a two year work permit for a foreign employee. Now the work permit is limited to one year. At that point, the company must reapply for a labour market assessment.
McAlpine said one year isn’t long enough to satisfy the permanent residency requirements.
“That limit of one year means, effectively, the bridge to permanent residency has been severed,” he said.
“We don’t want to spend a bunch of effort, bring in, recruit and train, only to find they have to leave the country and we have to repeat the cycle. That’s not sustainable.”
Maple Leaf’s pork processing plant in Brandon, which at full capacity can process more than 90,000 hogs per week and employ more than 2,000 people, is short 120 workers, McAlpine said.
The lack of labour is cutting into the plant’s efficiency and profitability.
“We (are) shifting labour that would otherwise be doing more value added cutting, boning and trimming to more basic roles in the plant,” he said.
“The profitability of a meat plant depends on its capacity utilization and maximizing the value of the finished products particularly for export markets.”
Dennis Laycraft, executive vice-president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, said in November that meat plants on the Prairies are desperate for employees and are short 600 workers.
Ron Davidson, director of international trade, government and media relations for the Canadian Meat Council, said the meat industry depends on foreign born labour because Canadians don’t want 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 what more we can do to recruit Canadians.”
While the four and four rule isn’t an issue for meat processors, it’s a different story for Canada’s trucking industry. Many firms have used the TFWP to recruit skilled drivers from Europe and some may soon have to return to their home countries.
Trevor Currie, owner of Gateway Carriers in Taber, a livestock hauling business, said one of his workers may have to return to Europe because of program changes, and he is already short staffed.
“It’s going to be devastating to the trucking industry. We’re not going to be able to replace those workers fast enough to move the goods that need to be moved to the customer.”
A backlog in the handling of applications for permanent residency has worsened the problem. About 10,000 temporary foreign workers have applied in Alberta alone.
“There’s not enough people,” said Currie. “At what point do we start running out of goods in our stores?”
Nearly a year after the changes, the Temporary Foreign Worker Program is still controversial and continues to make headlines.
In March, a Conservative MP from New Brunswick said the program allows Canadian companies to bring in “brown” people while “whities” are at home, unemployed.
- TFWs must be from Mexico or certain Caribbean countries.
- Production must be included on the national commodities list.
- Activities must be related to on-farm primary agriculture.
- Positions can be in lower or higher-skilled occupations.
- TFWs can be from any country.
- Production must be included on the national commodities list.
- Activities must be related to on-farm primary agriculture.
- Positions can be in lower or higher-skilled occupations.
- Production is not included on the national commodities list.
- Employers can hire TFWs for any lower-skilled agricultural position.
- Education or formal training required for the occupation includes at most a high school diploma or maximum of 2 years of job-specific training.
- Education or formal training required for the occupation includes university education, college education, vocational education or apprenticeship training.
