Ottawa has loosened rules all over the country, especially in the food service and lodging industries
Businesses in the Rocky Mountain tourist hotspots of Banff and Canmore, Alta., have been given the go-ahead to hire a lot more temporary foreign workers to fill low-wage jobs because of a labor shortage caused by the pandemic.
The federal Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program allowed businesses in the Bow Valley to fill more positions last year than at any other time since 2015, which is the first year for which data is available. Employers in Canada can use the program to hire foreign workers to fill temporary jobs when there aren’t enough qualified Canadians to do the job.
Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) says that 237 jobs have been approved in Canmore. That’s more than twice as many jobs as were approved in 2019, which was the next-highest year ever. This number more than tripled in Banff, going from 141 in 2019 to 454 in 2024.
This doesn’t mean that all approved jobs were filled by temporary foreign workers, but experts say that both the number of requests and the number of approvals are big.
“[It’s] kind of jaw-dropping,” said Jason Foster, an associate professor of human resources and labor relations at Athabasca University in Alberta.
“These numbers are similar to some of the numbers we saw in the early 2000s, when Alberta and Canada had a big temporary foreign worker boom.”
The trend isn’t just happening in the Bow Valley or even in Alberta. The government of the United Statestemporarily eased limitsLimits on how many temporary foreign workers a business can hire for low-paying jobs, and employers all over Canada are using the program more and more.
According to data from ESDC, the number of approvals for temporary foreign workers went up by about 70% last year compared to 2019.
This is a change from what the government did in 2014, when the TFW program was criticized.Caused Ottawa to change it., making it harder for businesses to hire temporary foreign workers and putting limits on how many they could hire.
Some people think that the recent changes are needed to help get back to normal after the pandemic, while others think it’s a step in the wrong direction for Canada’s economy.
The pandemic made the labor shortage worse
The number of approvals went up after the governmentraised the capOn how many temporary foreign workers a business could hire for low-paying jobs, increasing it from 10% to 20% of the total number of workers in a company.
As of last spring, the program lets industries with “demonstrated labor shortages,” like hotels and restaurants, hire up to 30% of their staff.
The government says that a low-wage job is one that pays less than the median hourly wage for the province or territory. That’s $28.85 in Alberta.
In the Bow Valley, which depends on tourism, “Help Wanted” signs are posted in many restaurant windows, and there are online job boards.are pages longMost approvals were given to cooks, light-duty cleaners, and food-service supervisors.
“These are jobs that have always had trouble finding people to fill them, even before the pandemic. “The pandemic has only made them worse,” said Karli Fleury, who is in charge of the Banff and Lake Louise Hospitality Association’s workforce and communications.
The businesses in Banff that received the most approvals were:
- With 120 spots, Banff Caribou Properties Ltd.
- With 40 positions is the Rimrock Resort Hotel.
- The Fairmont Banff Springs hotel is run by FHR Banff Operations Corporation, which has 30 jobs.
The businesses with the most approvals that have their headquarters in Canmore (even though some of their workers may be based elsewhere) were:
- With 73 positions, K S Somers Enterprises Ltd. is a McDonald’s franchisee.
- 2022994 Alberta Ltd., a franchisee of Tim Hortons, with 34 positions.
None of the above businesses agreed to talk to CBC News, but the general manager of the Rimrock Resort Hotel said his business is “pro the [TFW] program.”
Tim Hortons’ head office sent out a statement confirming that some of its restaurant owners have hired temporary foreign workers to make up for lost workers after the pandemic. The statement also said that the Canmore franchise owner, who runs four restaurants in the area, also helps pay for his employees’ housing and transportation.
Program gives stability and chanc
In the Bow Valley, temporary foreign workers are still a relatively small element of the region’s workforce — which also includes Canadians and travellers with open work permits, such as the young Australians and New Zealanders who have long flocked to the Rocky Mountains on working holiday visas.
For businesses, the particular appeal of the TFW program is that it offers not just labour but security.
A Canadian, or a New Zealander on a working holiday visa, who takes a housekeeping job in Banff could quit their job at any time if they get a better offer elsewhere.
But temporary foreign workers have work permits that are tied to a specific employer. While they can change jobs in Canada, they would need a new work permit and an offer from another employer that has already received permission to hire a temporary foreign worker.
“It provides more stability in our workforce through the temporary foreign worker program,” Fleury said. “We know that we have invested in this person to come to the country and that they’re going to stay with us at least two years.”
From a worker’s perspective, the draw of the program is that it offers the prospect of getting a foothold in Canada, allowing them to build up experience with the goal of applying for permanent residency.
Jun Cacayuran’s family is an example of that success story. His wife arrived in Canada from the Philippines as a temporary foreign worker at a Banff hotel in 2010. Once she had received her permanent residency, she sponsored Cacayuran and their two children to join her in 2013.
He said many people in the Philippines are motivated to move to Canada to seek better wages and secure a better life for their families.
“The system here in Canada is much better than anywhere else,” said Cacayuran, who lives in Banff and now helps other newly arrived temporary foreign workers as president of the Filipino-Canadian Community Association in the Rockies.
Ask around town and you’ll hear similar perspectives. CBC News spoke with five temporary foreign workers in the Bow Valley, all of whom hoped to achieve permanent residence status in the future.
Like Fleury, Cacayuran said temporary foreign workers play a key role in keeping the local economy going.
“Not only in Banff but in the whole Bow Valley, or in the whole of Canada, we need these temporary foreign workers and [for them] to be a permanent resident, because there is a scarcity in labour force,” he said.
The case against the TFW progra
Some worry, however, that tying the prospect of permanent residency to a low-wage service job — one that workers generally aren’t allowed to quit without losing their ability to work in Canada — puts them in a vulnerable spot.
That can make it difficult to push back against low wages or poor working conditions, said Foster, the Athabasca University professor.
“Workers are willing to put up with a lot in the hopes that they can land permanent residency,” he said. “It’s just too easy for an unscrupulous employer to take advantage of this system without consequence.”
René Dumont, a Banff-based community engagement worker with the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society, said that’s a fair criticism. While most employers treat their workers well and respect their contracts, Dumont said, there are exceptions.
“It does put people in more challenging situations, for sure,” he said.
In response to questions about worker vulnerability, a spokesperson for ESDC said the government has recently strengthened protections for temporary foreign workers and that open work permits are available for those experiencing abuse.
WATCH | Foreign workers trained for in-demand jobs working elsewhere:
Beyond the issue of a power imbalance, economist Mikal Skuterud said he also sees an economic case against the low-wage TFW program.
Businesses may have a hard time hiring people for entry-level positions, but he said it isn’t the government’s job to solve that problem.
“That’s a crazy way to think about what a government’s responsibility is in the economy,” Skuterud, a professor at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ont., said in an interview with CBC News.
Instead, he said, labour shortages should be seen as an opportunity.
When businesses are forced to compete for staff, they are pushed to raise wages, offer benefits and otherwise make their jobs more appealing, Skuterud wrote in a piece on temporary foreign workers he co-authored for the magazine Policy Options.
They’re also more likely to hire people who historically have had a hard time getting a foothold in the labour market, he said, such as new immigrants and people with disabilities.
That competition also pushes businesses to invest in employee training and use their existing workers more efficiently, he said.
Some businesses might fail if they can’t keep up in this environment, Skuterud said, but that’s the free market at work.
“Business failures are a necessary reality of a healthy, well-functioning economy,” he wrote.
Employers cautiously optimistic about high seaso
In a statement to CBC News, the ESDC spokesperson emphasized that the TFW program is “designed to be responsive to changes in the labour market” and that it’s reviewed on an ongoing basis to ensure its policies reflect the latest economic conditions.
The extended 30 per cent hiring cap has been renewed once already, and it’s now expected to last until October — though Foster said he wonders whether the temporary change brought in last year might crystallize into a permanent feature.
“I’m immediately curious about whether this is going to just be a temporary post-COVID [situation] or if this becomes another wave of sustained reliance on temporary foreign workers,” he said.
In the Bow Valley, Fleury said, temporary foreign workers and other employees have started to arrive in recent months ahead of the high season, leading to a sense of cautious optimism among employers.
While it isn’t yet clear what the future of the program may be, Fleury said she expects it, along with the working holiday program, will always have some role to play in tourism-driven economies like Banff.
“We will always be using these programs in some capacity,” she said.
