Country’s agri-businesses want streamlined processes, small business lobby group says
As the Trudeau government looks to overhaul its Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program, most agri-businesses say they are in favour of multi-employer work permits as an option, enabling employers to share foreign workers, according to new research undertaken by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB).
Foreign worker ‘poaching’
However, cautions the CFIB, the majority of agribusiness owners don’t support sectoral and/or regional work permits, whether it’s under the current or a new program structure, where a third party would recruit and dispatch a pool of foreign workers, as they fear such permits could facilitate employee poaching and thus hinder retention.
“While government is reviewing its TFW program, it needs to consider the practical needs of agri-businesses and the future of Canada’s food security,” said Juliette Nicolaÿ, a CFIB policy analyst.
“Farmers are already struggling with chronic staffing shortages and when they turn to foreign labour, it’s only as a last resort because they can’t find anyone locally,” she added.“That’s concerning given Canada’s ageing population and a perceived lack of interest among Canadian workers in a career in agriculture.”
TFW hiring in Quebec
CFIB research found that three in 10 Canadian agri-businesses hired foreign workers in 2023. The reliance on foreign workers was even more pronounced in certain regions, such as Quebec (51%), and in agriculture sub-sectors characterized by labor intensive tasks, such as the fruits, vegetable and horticultural specialties (64%).
According to Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), among employers who hired TFWs, 92% said foreign workers helped them meet demand for their products or services, while 89% said that TFWs helped them stay in business.
CFIB maintains that there are many misconceptions around the TFW program,for example that TFWs aren’t paid sufficient wages or they’re mistreated by their employers.
Debunking TFW myths
In fact, the federation says, most (85%) TFWs are paid the same wage as Canadianfull-time residents or citizens, and only 3.5% are paid less. They also note that the federal government conducts regular inspections to ensure health and safety of foreign workers, with 94% of employers inspected found to be compliant on 26 different criteria.
“While there may be isolated bad actors that should not be tolerated, agri-businesses highly value foreign workers, and they take time and effort to bring TFWs to Canada,”said Francesca Basta, a CFIB research analyst.
“They cover costs that go beyond wages like housing, transport and health care. It is also common for farmers to have the same TFWs come back year after year. Some also sponsor foreign workers to become permanent residents.”
CFIB’s suggestions
To improve the TFW program’s efficiency, the CFIB recommends that the federal government should consider:
- Reducing red tape associated with hiring TFWs, notably streamlining the Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) process;
- Allowing for the sharing or transferring foreign workers as an option (e.g., multi-employer work permit);
- Indexing the housing deduction to inflation – it is currently $30, which does not reflect real housing prices;
- Allowing employers to match the wages offered by another employer with an LMIA in the same area to strengthen retention and curtail poaching. Provisions under the Employer Compliance Regime currently limit this;
- Reimbursing the employer for the costs associated with the administration and enforcement of the compliance inspection, should the LMIA not be issued;
- And introduce a mechanism to compensate initial costs covered by the employer whose employee has been poached and streamlining access to new TFWs.
The CFIB’s full mitigating agricultural labour shortages report, Harvesting a solution: Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs),can be found on the CFIB’s website.
