The flow of temporary foreign workers in Alberta is on the rise and “there’s no end in sight,” according to global relocation expert Gail Reinhart, of The MI Group in Calgary.
It started with the oil patch and now the trend to use foreign workers has grown to encompass many industries, including agriculture, manufacturing, construction, logistics as well as general labourers.
“It’s becoming prevalent in almost every industry,” says Reinhart, a speaker at the 2006 Alberta Human Resources Conference in Calgary recently.
“A lot of these organizations recruiting people from outside the country want (temporary foreign workers) to stay and work because it’s not a temporary labour shortage – it’s permanent,” says Reinhart.
Although companies are required to look for Canadian workers first, many claim the new reality of sustaining our economic growth requires a global workforce, not local.
“It’s throughout the whole economy,” says Herman Van Reekum, president of VRV Immigration Services. “The oil companies are already taking a lot of Canadian workers, but then there are all these other companies that have to deal with the (lack of supply).”
Van Reekum recently recruited 30 Mexican workers to fill jobs in the agriculture and food distribution sectors. He expects to recruit 100 more in the next few months.
He also recruits internationally for truck drivers, engineers, metal workers, welders, machinists and other industries being impacted by the shortage of employees.
Thirty-three out of 53 occupational groups tracked by the Alberta government recorded unemployment levels below three per cent in the most recent report.
Last month, the scale of the shortage was questioned by organized labour unions. The Alberta Federation of Labour cited the Alberta Construction Workforce Development Forecasting Committee’s statements that there are no actual shortages of skilled construction workers. It forecast surpluses for the next several years.
The Alberta government, meanwhile, predicts a shortage of 100,000 workers over the next eight years. A government report estimates Alberta’s economy will produce a total of 400,000 new jobs by 2014. It forecasts 300,000 new workers will enter the labour market during that time.
“The whole country is looking for people,” says Trish Matthews, a Calgary-based international recruiter. “In the last five years, foreign recruitment has increased dramatically.”
She calls it a “common activity” for human resource departments to fill jobs through international efforts in companies of all sizes.
The federal government is streamlining the approval process for temporary foreign workers in areas of the country where there are shortages, including parts of Ontario, BC and other regions.
Unskilled labourers can apply for work permits of up to one year and must then leave Canada for four months. Highly skilled workers are often granted longer term permits or landed immigrant status. The process still takes about eight to ten weeks, says Van Reekum.
The large oil and gas companies have recruited internationally for years, but are turning to more foreign workers to fill gaps that threaten costly delays to the $100 billion of capital projects on the books in Alberta.
“Now all the smaller companies are looking to go through this process,” says the MI Group’s Reinhart.
A lot of the small or mid-sized companies usually lack the time and resources to take on international recruitment efforts themselves, so they outsource it to firms specializing in the area.
“People are afraid of the process because there is a formal process to complete,” says Matthews.
Companies must demonstrate to the federal government that a full-scale advertising search for a suitable Canadian employee was unsuccessful before venturing abroad. They can then file for a labour opinion approval through Services Canada.
“One of the problems of bringing foreign workers in is certifying them up to Canadian standards,” says Reinhart.
Provincial and federal governments continue to work on ways to implement more effective ways of recognizing and upgrading foreign credentials in conjunction with companies and other agencies.
The trend also demonstrates the flow of people in the global economy is much greater than in the past. Matthews regularly recruits from countries in Western Europe, while European companies recruit all over the world – including Canada.
“They wanted access to the best people in the world, not the country,” says Matthews, referring to her U.K. client. “Companies and employees are also realizing that maybe they can be more selective … if you’re willing to move.”
Reprinted with permission. 'Foreign workers fill more and more jobs', by Derek Sankey (derek.sankey@telus.net), Pg A45, The Province/Working, May 21, 2006
