Restaurants Canada says more access to temporary foreign workers a positive step for P.E.I. businesses

Ottawa will now allow rural businesses to employ more temporary foreign workers to help supplement the local workforce, a move Restaurants Canada says will help some restaurants on P.E.I. keep their doors open.

On Friday, Ottawa announced it will allow rural employers to have a greater proportion of low-wage temporary foreign workers on their payroll on a time-limited basis.

The measures will allow these employers to have up to 15 per cent of their workforce in this category, in eligible rural regions. That's up from a current cap of 10 per cent, the government said in a news release.

Janick Cormier, Atlantic Canada vice-president with Restaurants Canada, said it's especially difficult to find labour in rural parts of the east coast and calls the change "a great first step."

"The reality is that Atlantic Canada, our population is getting old, and so we are having a real hard time with labour," she said. 

"All of the folks who live there want to have the services that they have gotten used to having — their coffee in the morning and ability to have dinners with friends and families, celebrating important milestones. But without the labour that we need to keep those businesses going, it will be difficult to keep the doors open."

Cormier called the temporary foreign worker program "a measure of last resort" and said it is not easy to bring someone in through the program. She noted "many hoops to jump through" as well as the cost to bring in a foreign worker. 

"It's definitely not the first choice of any restaurant owner, but it has become a key program to help fill critical roles," she said.

Cormier said the province has not yet told her whether P.E.I. intends to take up the federal government on the changes but "we are really hoping that they will." 

Ryan MacRae is a migrant worker program co-ordinator with the Cooper Institute, working with employees and advocating for change to federal and provincial immigration and labour laws. He said the change won’t have as much of an impact on P.E.I. as temporary foreign workers are typically found in agriculture and seafood processing sectors, which are not impacted.

"That being said, there are rural businesses. We're seeing an increase of temporary foreign workers in the hospitality sector and restaurant service industries," he said.

"There will be businesses that could use and increase that capacity, but it won't have as large of an impact as it might in other provinces."

He said P.E.I. focuses more on worker quality than quantity and the Cooper Institute has advocated for "status for all."

"It has a huge economic surplus to communities and especially rural ones in the country and the province."