Ottawa crackdown on temporary foreign workers threatens businesses in rural, northern Manitoba, advocates fear

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This article was published 27/08/2024 (451 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE federal government’s plan to refuse applications for temporary foreign workers in places where the jobless rate is six per cent or higher could spell trouble for businesses in rural and northern Manitoba, advocates say.

The government said Monday that effective Sept. 6, it is bringing back pre-pandemic rules that made it harder for businesses to rely on cheap labour from abroad.

“Today’s announcement is worrisome and will almost certainly take a toll on Manitoba’s small businesses, particularly those in smaller and rural communities where many have come to rely on new Canadians to work and to buy goods and services,” said Brianna Solberg, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business director of legislative affairs for the Prairies and Northern Canada.

While Manitoba and its capital have unemployment rates below six per cent (5.7 and 5.4 per cent, respectively), the rate in both the Parklands and North regions is 6.6 per cent, according to the latest federal job bank numbers.

The unemployment rate in that part of the province is up three percentage points from July 2023, with 2,000 fewer people working there compared to the same period last year, the report says.

A spokesperson for Labour and Immigration Minister Malaya Marcelino said Monday that the province is reviewing the federal government’s plan to reduce the number of temporary foreign workers before commenting on its impact on Manitoba.

The Opposition Tories say Manitoba’s economy is worse off since the NDP formed government.

“Unemployment is rising in Manitoba, economic markers are worse than they were a year ago, and many Manitobans are struggling with the rising cost of living every day under this NDP government,” interim Progressive Conservative leader Wayne Ewasko said Monday in an email.

“(Premier) Wab Kinew and the NDP are already failing Manitoba workers and businesses, and decisions imposed by the (federal) Liberal-NDP coalition government will only make things harder for Manitobans.”

The federal government said Monday that that temporary foreign workers hired through the low-wage stream will be able to work a maximum of one year, down from two. There will be some exceptions to the rules for specific sectors, such as health care and construction, it said.

“Other important sectors will be hit hard — particularly hospitality and travel/tourism,” Solberg predicted.

“There are many jobs and locations where there simply aren’t enough Canadians to fill the gaps,” she said. “TFWs can help supplement the Canadian labour force and provide the labour that our local businesses need to grow and expand their operations.”

According to recent CFIB survey data, the shortage of both skilled and unskilled labour is the No. 1 factor limiting businesses from growing or expanding, Solberg said.

Manitoba currently has close to 6,700 temporary foreign workers, said Chuck Davidson, president and CEO of the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce.

“That’s less than one per cent of the workforce in Manitoba. It’s not a huge number,” said Davidson, adding a lot of those workers are in the province doing work that Manitobans can’t or won’t do at a wage that makes the business viable.

Davidson said he wants to see more details of the federal government’s plan to scale back TFWs, the rationale for the sudden change in policy and how it may impact Manitoba.

The province relies on immigration to maintain its population and has offered temporary foreign workers a pathway to permanent-resident status as an incentive to settle in Manitoba.

“Immigration has always been a key part of growing Manitoba,” said Davidson.

“Anything that’s going to have a negative impact on that is going to be of concern to the economy. We need to see exactly what this is going to look like and what the implications are going to be of these policy changes the federal government is looking to make.”

— with files from Canadian Press

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca