2013-10-09
Tobi Cohen
The Gazette
OTTAWA — Employment Minister Jason Kenney says the government could soon resurrect a fast-track scheme that allows companies to bring temporary foreign workers to Canada more quickly.
The program was dumped last spring amid controversy over a B.C. mining company that hired 201 Chinese workers after an ad seeking Mandarin-speaking miners failed to turn up Canadian candidates, and a group of Royal Bank of Canada employees found themselves training foreigners to replace them after their jobs were outsourced by a contractor.
In an interview with Postmedia News, Kenney suggested the scheme, known as the Accelerated Labour Market Opinion process, would focus on high-paying, high-skill jobs, not fast-food franchises in booming Alberta that need foreigners to peddle burgers and doughnuts to oil workers.
“We’re looking at the question as to whether we should restart accelerated processing for certain labour market opinions,” Kenney said.
“I think it should be narrower, more limited and focused on really critical jobs with specialized skills that are paying a good salary in clearly in-demand occupations, probably in regions with very low unemployment.”
While he wouldn’t get into specifics, Kenney said he’s looking at similar programs in other countries that target foreign workers with the sort of jobs that pay six figure salaries.
“We created this Accelerated Labour Market Opinion process for high-skilled workers and we suddenly saw a large and growing number of food service supervisors come in under exemption to work in fast food outlets in Western Canada,” he said. “We are concerned that there have been abuses in the past and we’re just trying to strike the right balance.”
Kenney said he’s also reviewing the occupations that are currently exempt from the labour market opinion process as some “shouldn’t exist.” In other cases, he said, there should be exemptions.
For example, the federal government has an agreement with Alberta to exempt welders, heavy-duty mechanics and iron workers from the process due to a shortage of skilled workers in those fields. Those involved in work exchange programs, students, entrepreneurs, intra-company transfers and those covered under international trade agreement like NAFTA are also exempt — for now.
Employers who wish to hire temporary foreign workers are generally required to first obtain a labour market opinion — essentially an assessment of whether there are Canadians available to do the job. Those who receive a favourable labour market opinion, confirmation that there are, indeed, no Canadians for the job, could then apply for temporary foreign worker permits.
To the delight of many employers, the Accelerated Labour Market Opinion process was introduced last year to speed up the issuing of work permits to better meet labour market demand in high-skill fields. Abuses, however, led to its temporary cancellation in April. At the time, the government also dropped the confusing 15 per cent wage differential for foreign workers introduced in the last budget. Employers now have to pay temporary foreign workers the prevailing regional wage average that Canadian workers doing the same job earn.
The federal government has promised to overhaul the temporary foreign worker program that has grown exponentially in recent years. By the end of 2012, there were 338,189 temporary foreign workers in Canada, more than double the number of temporary workers present a decade earlier.
Many have complained that companies have become too reliant on the temporary foreign worker program and are not doing enough to ensure qualified Canadians get first crack at jobs.
Kenney was shuffled over the summer from Citizenship and Immigration to the new Ministry of Employment and Social Development. His key task, he said, is to “end the paradox” of “too many Canadians without jobs and too many jobs without workers.”
tcohen@postmedia.com
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