2024-01-22 05:00:00
Demanded loudly by Quebec employers, temporary foreign workers are causing controversy in the Canadian business world. Voices are being raised to restrict their numbers while here, almost everyone wants the opposite.
• Read also: From Cameroon or Quebec: “I may miss family from time to time, but it’s not that bad”
• Read also: Five times more foreign workers on the expressway: “We need these workers”
• Read also: From foreign worker to entrepreneur
“Without these people, there is no economic development and no growth,” clarifies the representative of Quebec factories, Véronique Proulx, at the head of Manufacturiers & Exportateurs du Québec.
The growth of Canada’s population already seems “extreme”, ruled Stéfane Marion, the chief economist of the National Bank, which falls under the federal charter of banks, this week. Desjardins, the Quebec institution, instead thinks that the floodgates of immigration must be opened.
“We don’t see that often,” laughs the vice-president of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce of Quebec, Alexandre Gagnon, about the deep disagreement between the two banking giants.
A large part of the business community in Quebec agrees with Desjardins. The situation is critical, it is said, because companies are currently refusing contracts and delaying investments.
“Temporary foreign workers are very popular. We don’t have enough people to keep the economy moving,” observes the representative of Quebec bosses, Karl Blackburn, of the Employers’ Council.
Jobs everywhere
Our factories – Quebec’s manufacturing sector – have gone from 4,000 to 16,000 temporary foreign workers since 2021, when Ottawa relaxed the rules of its program.
These people make the kayaks we sail, the doors and windows that protect us, and the car parts that transport us. Almost all sectors of the economy need them.
“We even lack boat captains at $250,000 per year or laborers and carpenters at $80,000,” says Karl Blackburn.
Whether in aeronautics, accounting, wood and forestry, the battery sector, tourism or retail, there are numerous positions to fill. This is without mentioning education and RPAs.
In health, Quebec provided 30 positions for 100 retirements in 2019. For three years, the arrival of more foreign workers has allowed the system to maintain its number of employees.
“It’s thanks to them that we got through the pandemic. A retirement replacement rate of 100% is exceptional,” emphasizes Alexandre Gagnon on the subject of François Legault’s “guardian angels.”
The hole is widening
The needs of the labor market are known: Quebec will need 1.6 million workers by 2030. The gap is widening quickly, because the population is aging – only Japan has fewer young people than us.
These jobs will be filled 50% via schools, the government predicts, 25% thanks to “distant groups” such as women and indigenous people and 25% through immigration.
The target is therefore 400,000 foreign workers within seven years or 60,000 per year. Depending on who you talk to, it’s more or less the future of Quebec that depends on it.
In Canada’s business community, some are demanding that the program be “radically scaled back” and limited to sectors with “critical needs” like agriculture.
“Businesses should not be subsidized by the importation of cheap labor,” pontificates the Globe and Mail in an editorial dated January 13.
The reality could not be more different, claims Véronique Proulx, since hiring temporary foreign workers is an expensive and time-consuming process – deadlines are currently 12 months.
Let’s also not forget that those who come to work here for 2 or 3 years contribute to the richness of our culture, says Alexandre Gagnon. They do not just meet an economic need.
“Who will work in our restaurants, our museums and our theaters, three big users of the program since 2021,” he asks? It is thanks to immigrants that our towns and villages remain attractive.
–With the collaboration of Francis Halin
Do you have any information to share with us about this story?
Write to us at or call us directly at 1 800-63SCOOP.
1705916058
#Local #bosses #temporary #immigrant #workers