Many Canadian employers in the food and hospitality industry are experiencing serious problems finding and keeping good workers. The low wages, physical labour as well as the long evening and weekend hours makes many hospitality jobs unattractive to most Canadians.  Furthermore, over-time hours, training costs and efficiency resulting from high turnover rates and understaffing can significantly reduce profits for employers.

Hiring foreign can greatly reduce turnover, costs and improve productivity. Foreign workers are extremely hard working and are genuinely grateful for the opportunity to work and live in Canada. Also, turnover is extremely low for the foreign workers since they are only allowed to work for the employer identified on their work permit.

Employers who wish to hire foreign workers must usually obtain a positive Labour Market Opinion (LMO) from Service Canada which indicates that the employer tried to recruit Canadians. The LMO also indicates that the employer will pay the “prevailing wage” to the foreign worker.

Most foreign workers require a valid work permit to work in Canada which is normally obtained at a Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) Visa Post responsible for the country where the worker resides.  Foreign workers must usually undergo a medical examination with a “Designated Medical Practitioner” if the work permit is longer than six months or if the occupation is one where the “protection of health is essential.”

Many foreign workers on work permits can obtain Permanent Residence (PR) in Canada if they have a job in Canada.  There are various federal and provincial immigration programs that enable foreign workers to get PR within a year or two.  This means employers who hire workers on foreign work permits may be able to keep their workers indefinitely.

Finding and interviewing qualified foreign workers can be time-consuming.

As the demand for workers in Canada increases it will become even more important for Canadian employers to develop and implement a foreign worker program today. It is important to plan ahead and get help from professionals.

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• INDUSTRIES HIRING SKILLED WORKERS IN CANADA

1. First, to apply to be a citizen of Canada you need to be 18 years or older. Someone under 18 needs to have a Canadian parent who is already a citizen or who is simultaneously applying for citizenship. A parent can apply on behalf of a child.

2. The second requirement is that you have to be a permanent resident before you can apply for citizenship.

3. The third criterion has to do with residency, or the time that you have lived in Canada. You have to have accumulated 1095 days (3 years) of residence in a four year period. Minors, people under 18 years of age whose parents are applying on their behalf, don’t need to meet the residency obligation. Residency in Canada is not well defined for purposes of citizenship, and the result has been a lot of litigation and some leeway such that applicants with less than1095 days physical presence have still been able to meet the residency requirement.

4. In addition to the residency requirement, you need to have some basic language ability either in English or French, one of the two official languages of Canada. You do not have to be completely fluent, but you need to be able to make yourself understood and to understand other people in either of those two languages.

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Canada will stay the course on immigration in 2009, welcoming between 240,000 and 265,000 new permanent residents, Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, has announced.

“While countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia are talking about taking fewer immigrants, our planned numbers for 2009 are on par with last year and are among the highest for this country over the past 15 years,” Minister Kenney said. “The numbers reflect a continued commitment to an immigration program that balances Canada’s economic, humanitarian and family reunification goals.”

The 2009 plan includes up to 156,600 immigrants in the economic category; 71,000 in the family category; and 37,400 in the humanitarian category.

In recent years, Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) has been opened up to make it easier for Canadian employers to hire foreign workers to fill labour shortages in their growing businesses.  As a result, the annual number of foreign workers coming to Canada has skyrocketed over the past few years, and a growing proportion of them are unskilled.  Foreign worker advocates are now calling for a review of the program to better protect foreign worker rights and to explore avenues to allow them to transition to Canadian Permanent Residents.

Both federal and provincial governments have recognized the need for reforms to Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program.  Reports of recommendations have been published and are currently being reviewed by program coordinators.

In Alberta, where the number of foreign workers ballooned in the province to nearly 60,000 in December 2008 up from just under 40,000 a year earlier, the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) has been taking measures to better protect foreign worker rights.  In December 2007, the AFL established an advisory office and helpline for temporary foreign worker complaints and concerns.  It also conducts worksite audits to ensure that Alberta employers are compliant with provincial labour standards.

The AFL recently released a report calling for “the immediate end to the TFWP in its current form” and for the creation of mechanisms to offer Canadian Permanent Residency to all temporary foreign workers currently in Canada.

Additionally, a Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee report on illegal and temporary foreign workers has recently been tabled in the House of Commons, offering dozens of recommendations to improve the TFWP.

The recommendations include getting rid of a current rule that ties work permits to a specific Canadian employer along with improved measures to protect workers from unscrupulous recruitment agencies and employers.

“I rather suspect that a goodly number of their recommendations will find their way into law when the government implements changes to the program,” stated a spokesperson for Canada’s Immigration Minister, Jason Kenney.  “The Minister is currently consulting with cultural communities and employers on how to improve the temporary foreign worker program as well as the live-in caregiver program to better protect foreign workers, with a view to implementing tougher regulations in the upcoming months.”

Last month, Manitoba introduced a new Worker Recruitment and Protection Act to address certain issues faced by temporary foreign workers in the province.  The Act requires that all foreign worker recruitment agencies be registered and licensed by the province and prohibits recruitment agencies from charging fees to foreign workers.  Manitoba has also implemented an improved regulatory system, requiring both employers and recruitment agencies to submit detailed records about the place of employment, the workers’ duties and wages, and up-to-date contact information for the temporary foreign workers.

Foreign worker advocates are calling for similar legislation across the country.

While these reports and recommendations are being reviewed, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) is currently running an awareness campaign to inform temporary foreign workers and potential Canadian immigrants about how to protect themselves from dishonest and unethical immigration consultants and representatives.

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A record level of newcomers were admitted to Canada in 2008, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced yesterday to a conference geared toward helping more immigrants land jobs in their professions.

“We welcomed an unprecedented 519,722 newcomers to Canada in 2008, the largest number in Canada’s history,” Kenney said. “This number includes over 247,000 permanent residents, 143,000 temporary foreign workers and over 79,000 foreign students.”

Kenney was speaking at the Progress Career Planning Institute’s Internationally Educated Professionals conference yesterday, an event that drew about 1,100 immigrants and new Canadians to Toronto to network and strategize about how to overcome barriers to employment in their fields.

Many of the participants, including trained engineers, doctors, accountants and other professionals trained in their native countries, spoke about the hardships they face in trying to resume their careers in Canada.

Kenney said the federal government is working to ease the transition process for skilled immigrant workers. He referenced the prime minister’s recently announced plan to build a national framework for foreign credential recognition – which Kenney said will hopefully ease the red tape and provide more clarity for skilled immigrants.

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