Pressure to find a solution to Jasper鈥檚 ongoing labour crisis was front and centre during a meeting with MP Jim Eglinski and dozens of local business leaders, June 27.
At issue was the temporary foreign worker program, which has failed to help tourism-based economies such as Jasper meet their labour needs.
鈥淲e鈥檝e been scouring this country for years looking for staff,鈥� said Bernhard Schneider, general manager for Mountain Park Lodges.
鈥淲hen we were able to hire foreign workers that really gave us the relief we needed, but it鈥檚 getting more and more difficult.鈥�
He was one of more than a dozen business leaders in attendance at a round-table discussion at the Jasper Employment and Education Centre.
In 2014 the federal government tightened the rules surrounding the TFW program after media reports indicated fast food restaurants were misusing the program. As a result the number of temporary workers plummeted by 76 per cent in Alberta from 2013 to 2015.
The changes included prohibiting employers in the low-wage service sector from hiring TFWs if the regional unemployment rate was six per cent or higher.
Currently the unemployment rate in this economic region is 6.8 per cent, according to the latest information from Statistics Canada.
鈥淣ow that the unemployment rate is at 6.8 per cent we鈥檙e basically cut off,鈥� said Schneider. 鈥淣ot only are we cut off from acquiring potentially new people, but also people who are running out of time on their visas that have proven themselves for two years, that are excellent workers and have the potential to become future Canadians, we have to send them home.鈥�
The problem is the labour force survey that the TFW program uses to evaluate whether a business in Jasper can hire temporary foreign workers, also known as a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA), takes into consideration two vastly different economic regions of the province that stretch from Canmore to Peace River.
On one hand communities like Jasper, Banff and Lake Louise are struggling to attract and retain enough employees to support their tourism-based economies, while on the other hand communities such as Whitecourt, Peace River and Grande Prairie rely heavily on the oil and gas sector, which has been hit hard in recent years pushing the regional unemployment rate up.
As a result many businesses in town have either had their LMIA rejected or simply avoided applying for TFWs altogether.
鈥淲hen you lump the oil and gas industry, which is a very skilled and completely different workforce all together, we don鈥檛 have a chance to compete,鈥� said Schneider.
He suggested one way to resolve the issue would be to redraw the economic regions so that Jasper, Banff, Lake Louise and Canmore would be in their own economic region.
He also suggested making the program more flexible so that seasonal economies, such as Jasper, can hire temporary foreign workers for a six-month period, similar to the agriculture sector, which hires extra hands to help with the harvest.
His comments were echoed throughout the room to varying degrees.
鈥淭his year we鈥檝e actually used a third-party recruitment agency to hire 18 staff,鈥� said Gillian Thompson, the human resources manager for MPL.
鈥淭hey are Canadian, but they鈥檙e expensive and not a long-term solution.鈥�
She said most of her staff are foreign workers through the working holiday visa program and the Canadians that they do have are usually only here for three or four months.
鈥淲e鈥檙e in the same boat as everyone else,鈥� said Thompson.
Jennifer Melanson, director of human resources at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, said the TFW program is an important labour pool to help diversify the work force.
鈥淚t鈥檚 part of the solution,鈥� said Melanson. 鈥淲e鈥檙e all working on a very diversified strategy to make sure our hotels are staffed appropriately and correctly and the temporary foreign worker program is a big part of that for all of us.鈥�
While the focus of the meeting was on the TFW program, housing was also brought up several times as a contributing factor to the tight labour market.
Several employers expressed frustration that Parks Canada was able to set up nine temporary trailers to house its staff this summer when businesses have been struggling for years to find housing for their own staff.
Eglinski said he鈥檚 tried to find out why Parks Canada was able to install the temporary work camp, but to no avail.
鈥淚鈥檝e asked, but I can鈥檛 get an answer,鈥� Eglinski said, adding MP Blake Richards for Banff-Airdrie went ballistic when he found out.
鈥淲e are going to use that against them, I can assure you.鈥�
Parks Canada, which controls land use planning and development, was not invited to the meeting, however in April it told the 51暗网 the work camp would house 36 staff and the site would be rehabilitated once it鈥檚 vacated.
When it comes to the TFW program, Eglinski said he personally spoke with the minister of immigration on June 22 and was told the program will not be changed.
Instead Eglinski said he is working with Richards to find a different solution. Both men are part of the national tourism caucus, a non-partisan advisory group for the federal government.
鈥淲e鈥檙e putting together a recommendation through the minister of tourism to look at a program similar to the agriculture sector to deal with tourism industries,鈥� Eglinski said, adding many tourism-based communities across the country face similar challenges.
鈥淭here is pressure coming from the Liberal side, the NDP side and our side to get something to change in the way we bring immigrants in to deal with our tourism sectors across Canada,鈥� said Eglinski. 鈥淭he agriculture system is already set up and I can鈥檛 see why we can鈥檛 adopt the program they have. It鈥檚 a very simple program and it works very efficiently.鈥�
He said he also agreed that Jasper shouldn鈥檛 be lumped into the same economic region as Grande Prairie and Edson.
鈥淚 think you鈥檙e totally right that we should be looking for an exemption and basically taking the Rocky Mountains from the south right up to about Grand Cache,鈥� said Eglinski.
He urged the business leaders in the room to send him letters explaining their challenges so he can personally deliver them to the minister of immigration at a future date.
Mayor Richard Ireland, CAO Mark Fercho, Coun. Dwain Wacko and Pattie Pavlov, general manager for the Jasper Park Chamber of Commerce, were also in attendance at the meeting.
Paul Clarke
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