The federal government approved a temporary increase on the Temporary Foreign Workers (TFW) cap on March 13, but provincial approval has yet to follow.
As of April 1, employers at rural restaurants were potentially allowed to participate in this change; however, provincial governments have not yet weighed in on the move.
Restaurants Canada president and CEO Kelly Higginson says the wait for approval is extremely frustrating for these restaurants, which are now starting to see an increasing need for services for the tourist season.
“We’re talking about businesses that really serve their communities and the local economy. We are the fourth largest private employer in the country and located in every community across the country,” says Higginson.
The goal is to increase the allowable share of low-wage TFWs for rural employers from 10 per cent of their workforce to 15 per cent.
“This is critical, because we’re talking about our non-urban centres in the country where we have an aging population, declining populations, but still have a population of people who want services.”
These areas of the country, including British Columbia, see population growth during peak travel seasons, which necessitates more staffing.
“There could be [a] full-time population of 2,000 to 3,000 people that explodes up to three to four thousand people in their high peaks of the tourism season. There just isn’t the available workforce to tap into to support [the] sector,” says Higginson.
This increase is also a trickle-down effect of rising costs from gas-price increases, recovery from COVID-19 staffing decreases, and tariffs.
“We’ve been dealing with high-input costs constantly increasing over the last three to four years. Across the entire operation, we’ve seen everything in food, insurance, commercial real estate costs going up.”
Canadians are grappling with a chronic affordability challenge, and spending money at restaurants is where people first cut down their spending, says Higginson.
“We are getting hit at both sides here, when we are looking at our business modeling, and we’re unable to see how we’ll open the doors because we don’t have the physical workforce that we need.”
For their needs to be heard, Restaurants of Canada has been reaching out to premiers’ offices, submitting an official letter to have a call to action. They are asking again for them to opt into the program, as April 1 has already passed.
TFWs are a last resort, says Higginson.
“They account for just three per cent of our total workforce, but they help fill a critical gap that allows restaurants to continue operating and provide all the other jobs within those businesses.”
The area that is of most concern in B.C. is the Sunshine Coast.
“It is obviously, for tourism regions, quite a destination point,” said Higginson.
With files from Raynaldo Suarez