Canada is letting rural employers hire more temporary foreign workers. Economists say it’s a misstep
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/canada-is-letting-rural-employers-hire-more-temporary-foreign-workers-economists-say-its-a-misstep/article_615cb5a7-2053-4e3e-ab07-1e10844c98ba.html
29 Comments
It’s fine if they’re picking fruit. It’s not fine if they’re working at Tim Hortons or Uber.
Then the economists can go and pick the vegetables we eat. Problem solved.
Just as long as we don’t pay people enough. That would be a disaster.
Yeah and they hire just them
I was told Carney is different than Trudeau
I’m tired boss
Agreed.
The Hub released an article today (Why Canada’s GDP per capita crisis is real) that discussed the consequences of having high numbers of TFW’s as well:
‘First, the [composition shifted](https://cdhowe.org/publication/how-we-subverted-our-skills-based-immigration-system/) toward temporary, lower-skilled workers crowding out some of the high-skilled immigrants who complement capital investment and drive innovation. Second, the sheer volume increased population growth, making labour abundant, and encouraging the substitution away from capital. When businesses can easily access abundant low-skilled labour, they have less incentive to invest in the capital equipment and technology that boost output per worker. Together, both forces undermined productivity and the growth of real GDP per capita.’
If Canadians saw the conditions these people live in on these farms they wouldn’t say a word about “get rid of the TFWs!”
This is not additional TFWs, this is a redistribution of the already lowered total numbers.
There’s definitely a place for TFW’s.
A lot of Rural farmlands have used the program successfully for decades with no issues. The reality is Canadians have never wanted to work fields and farms. I grew up in a Rural city in south-western Ontario my whole life and I recall even back when I was teenager no one was signing up for any farm work. The hours are awful, there’s no work-life balance and it has never paid enough to attract Canadians.
However the TFW is now at the point where we’ve got people working at Tim Hortons, McDonalds and other minimum wage jobs. These industries have become so reliant on essentially Slave Labor that their entire business model revolves around exploiting these people. To be honest, they’re also using these pathways to exploit Canada’s immigration system so both sides are guilty.
PEC 👀👀👀
I moved to Prince Edward county from Toronto, originally Ottawa.
Nobody wants to be a field hand, as an actual observation.
They are being hired because they have to.
I even worked the books at one of the bigger, local wineries. If we could have hired an entirely local team, we would have. The supply of labor just isn’t there. Everybody local wants to serve or go into trades for more money, if they don’t just do unemployment dodging.
I’ll say it again here. Hire our kids and people here. Ffs.
Because Canadians are just sooooo eager to pick fruit all day
/s
When it comes to agriculture, foreign workers have been used for decades.
Blacklocks is also reporting that Tim’s lobbied for more TFWs, and that Cabinet caved:
https://www.blacklocks.ca/hortons-likes-foreign-staff/
The thing is it’s minimum wage to foreign workers but the employer had to cover transportation, lodging etc as well. Locals just get the minimum wage by comparison so it’s not really apples to apples.
I have several dairy farm clients using these programs now when it used to be more just the seasonal fresh produce farmers. They provide them with a house and a car on top of the wage which is actually a fair bit above minimum wage it’s a decent gig for them but it’s not really offered the same way to locals.
I worked hiring at a bigger greenhouse, we had Mexicans and Guatemalans because if I tried to hire local (and the owners always wanted a local workforce) they would reject the minimum wage or would take it and not show up or quit after the first hot day…getting people to do manual labour, especially fruit picking or veggies like asparagus is nearly impossible.
During covid local farmers were offering $30/hour for pickers and couldn’t get people out.
Big mistake.
This I understand! But Tim Hortons and other fast food places? Scams…
Calling a misstep would be an understatement
How about replacing Canadians in white collar office jobs or the skilled trades?
Because they’re also being used for that. Wage suppression at it’s finest.
I like to break this out as a quick way of showing the sort of bullshit our various levels of Government have been pulling. Any of these sound like jobs our educated workforce might need?
**A list of the 29 occupations Alberta had (under previous Gov) briefly refused to process new TFW requests for:**
Human Resources Managers
Engineering Managers
Purchasing Agents and Officers
Production Logistics Coordinators
Civil Engineers
Mechanical Engineers
Electrical/Electronic Engineers
Geological/Mineral Techs.
Civil Engineering Techs.
Industrial Engineers
Non-Destructive Testers and Inspection Technicians
Contractors/Supervisors in Electrical trades and Telecommunications
Machinists/Machining and Tooling Inspectors
Welders and Related Machine Operators
Electricians
Industrial Electricians
Plumbers
Carpenters
Contracts and Supervisors: Mechanical Trades
Contractors and Supervisors: Heavy Equipment Crews
Construction Millwrights and Industrial Mechanics
Heavy-duty Equipment Mechanics
Motor Vehicle Body Repairers
Transport Truck Drivers
Contractors and Supervisors: Oil & Gas Drilling & Services
Oil & Gas Well Drillers, Servicers, Testers
Oil & Gas Well Drilling and Related Workers and Service Operators
Oil & Gas Drilling, Servicing and Related Labourers
Petroleum, Gas and Chemical Process Operators
[https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-bans-hiring-foreign-workers-for-29-high-skilled-jobs-1.4075684](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-bans-hiring-foreign-workers-for-29-high-skilled-jobs-1.4075684)
This is good and l is exactly what the tfw program is for. They should be used for rural jobs that Canadians don’t want to work.
For all those complaining I highly doubt you’d want to work on a farm in the middle of nowhere…
On other hand the program shouldn’t be used by fast food companies in urban areas.
It’s the “temporary” we struggle with.
Picking strawberries was my first real job. The age range was vast, from me, who was just 18. To my dad who was in his early 60s. To literal school children.
It was an absolutely miserable job, not worth the pay and constant threat of being fired because I wasn’t “picking enough.” Like yeah, I’m not going to put rotten, or half consumed/bug or slug infested strawberries in the basket. Which was exactly what they expected me to do, no quality control. I’m a half decent human being bruh, if you are going to fire me for that, I really don’t want to work for you anyway.
Didn’t get fired, but I’m glad it was only seasonal work. I made it till the end, but I’ll never do that job again. It isn’t worth the effort.
Maybe if it was for a different crop, sure, but never again for strawberries.
Point is, temp workers from other countries are cheap, they don’t complain like many here do, they are used to working in the heat if they are from more southern countries, etc. This policy makes some level of sense.
I’m all in favour of running up the population to 50 Million. And bring in who we need most. I’d bring in lots of Asia style construction workers who can turn those city lots into 5 story apts. in a jiffy. Thugs like Trump demand an elbows up attitude. Do you think Canada would have been as successful in our trade war with Trump if we had 35 Million rather than Trudeau’s 42 Million?
The beatings will continue until morale improves
If these jobs aren’t “good enough” for locals, they are not good enough for anyone. Improve working conditions and wages/benefits, and the problem will solve itself.
I have done my share of picking when I was young. It was a good way to fill your pocket and not spend it because you were at the farm all day. It’s not for everyone. Tobacco is the worst and very few locals would take the work. Even fruit is tough to find labour for.
Pay more and improve conditions to make these jobs attractive to canadians. These field workers should be in a union and be a red seal trade, they deserve 100k salary.
I would accept doubling or tripling the price of vegetables to accommodate this. If people can’t afford it, there will be a bunch of new field workers jobs they can get. /S
Small local employers have a conscience. Large Corporations not so much. Profit (and CEO bonus) is #1