Program a ‘Band-Aid’ for a bullet wound: Province
Alberta’s Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Occupation-Specific Pilot program is helping fill acute skill shortages and is attracting American workers in droves.
Almost 1,000 highly skilled workers have been brought into Alberta from the United States since the pilot launched in 2012.
American workers are ideal for the program because they live close, have similar training and experience, understand Canadian work culture and can enter the country without a visa, said Laura Dawson, who wrote a report on the pilot for the Conference Board of Canada’s Global Commerce centre.
And perhaps most importantly, American workers are happy to keep an emphasis on the temporary aspect of the program.
"They are very happy with vocational employment where they will be going home," Dawson said. "It is definitely a temporary contract and that fits very well into Canada’s overall objective of building skills at home."
The Occupation-Specific Pilot was introduced as a short-term solution to Alberta’s labour crisis, which the Conference Board says is the worst in the country. It allows employers to hire foreign workers certified in specific occupations without first obtaining a positive Labour Market Opinion from the federal government.
Work permits have been issued for steamfitter-pipefitters, welders, ironworkers, carpenters, estimators and heavy-duty equipment mechanics.
Temporary foreign workers must have an initial job offer from an employer in Alberta before they can participate in the program. Workers who aren’t certified by Alberta’s Apprenticeship and Industry Training (AIT) require an approval letter from AIT for the Alberta Qualification Certificate Program. With that letter, they can get a one-year employer-specific/occupation specific work permit.
Workers who hold an Alberta Qualification Certificate, or a similar certificate recognized in the province, can apply for a two-year permit and are permitted to move freely from employer to employer, provided they continue to work in the same occupation.
The application deadline for the project was recently extended from Aug. 1, 2013, to July 31, 2014. As a result, participation in the project has been extended to July 31, 2017.
As successful as the project has been, its supporters emphasize the pilot’s nature as a short-term solution.
Dawson said the pilot was so critical to Alberta’s economy it forced collaboration between federal and provincial governments, the apprenticeship industry, training organizations, unions and employers — groups which don’t always co-operate, she said. Still, she called the program a "Band-Aid."
"It’s not a permanent solution. We have to continue to focus on our domestic skills and training," she said. "I have a 21-year-old daughter. If she wanted to become a welder it would take her five years of training and certification before she could actually go on the job. So while we’re doing our domestic skills employment and training, while we’re investing in growing our own workers, the American workers are a very good stop-gap during that transition."
Dawson said programs such as Alberta’s Occupation-Specific Pilot ultimately allow for long-term solutions.
"The Temporary Foreign Worker Program tends to be the subject of a lot of criticism as an instrument that’s taking jobs away from Canadians or promoting outsourcing," Dawson said. "But it’s actually a very flexible instrument to help bring workers quickly into high-demand areas. I would emphasize the need to keep that kind of flexible instrument available to employers."
American workers may be happy with the program, but "happy" is a relative term, according to Thomas Lukaszuk, Alberta’s deputy premier.
"I don’t believe it makes anybody ‘happy’ because in this province our employers and our government are more interested in permanent foreign workers," Lukaszuk said.
He hopes the Occupation-Specific Pilot project helps the province build its long-term goals, which include putting an end to the current revolving-door-system of 75,000 workers entering and exiting the province every four years as part of the TFW program. Lukaszuk also called the pilot project a Band-Aid solution, saying it is a practical resolution for the labour shortage only until major revisions can be made to Canada’s immigration policy.
"At the end of the day, in a situation like Alberta’s where you have something like 60,000 to 75,000 ongoing temporary foreign workers, it begs the question, ‘Wouldn’t it make sense to simply make them permanent foreign workers?’" Lukaszuk said.
Rather than have temporary workers send the majority of their income to their family overseas, he argued, wouldn’t it make sense to make them Canadians and have them invest their money in the Canadian economy?
Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, has expressed serious concern over Alberta’s Occupation-Specific Pilot project and the province’s use of TFWs. McGowan said Albertans are being put at a disadvantage.
"The government has been very secretive about this pilot program," McGowan said in a statement. "This just shows how broken the Temporary Foreign Worker program is. It’s lowering employment standards, it’s creating opportunities for exploitation, it’s disenfranchising workers and it’s displacing well-trained Canadian trades people."
Despite the vocal criticism aimed at the program, Alberta’s pilot project may serve as a model for provincial governments across the country.
In Saskatchewan, for example, more than 3,000 companies have asked for and received permission to hire temporary foreign workers.
Rupen Pandya, the assistant deputy of labour market development for Saskatchewan, said Alberta’s pilot will likely be one of many programs it employs to address its impending labour shortages.
"We are now projecting labour supply requirements ranging from 85,000 to 95,000 opportunities or positions over the next five years," Pandya said. "This is clearly a challenge we hope to address using multiple strategies. The pilot would be one."
Pandya added the province’s primary focus remains on its long-term plans — with an emphasis on education — but even if education and training are provided to all of Saskatchewan’s underrepresented demographics, there would still be a shortage in labour.
"We’d still be short," he explained, "and that’s where the temporary foreign worker program comes in. Any pathway that can help us address our critical labour shortages, we’re interested in exploring."
