Yellowknife business owners fed up with proving labour shortage each time they want to hire a foreign worker

Members of Yellowknife's business community are urging the government to stop asking them to prove the city's labour shortage each time they apply to hire a foreign worker. 

They say it's well known that Yellowknife needs more workers and the step that has employers confirm the gap —- a labour market impact assessment (LMIA) — is redundant and slowing down an already cumbersome process. 

The LMIA is meant to prove that no Canadian is available to do the job, but Yukon and some provinces in Atlantic Canada have been granted LMIA exemptions in hiring workers from abroad and the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce says the Northwest Territories should be granted the same. 

Mark Henry is the co-owner of the Copperhouse restaurant in Yellowknife. 

"It's a bit of a silly exercise," he said. 

When he started his business, Henry said they always planned to lean on foreign workers as a resource to address labour shortages. 

He said since the process is so lengthy, the restaurant has developed a sort of pipeline philosophy to ensure they've recruited and processed individuals who are available to come when a position opens.

The entire process — from posting a job ad, completing an LMIA, and bringing over an employee from abroad — can take up to a year, Henry said, adding that the LMIA alone can take between six and eight months. 

"Your labour reality on day one when you were proving [that there's no local labour available] is completely different than it was on month 12," Henry said. 

Henry is part of a subcommittee with the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce lobbying to get an LMIA exemption. 

Melissa Syer, executive director of the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce, says hiring foreign workers is essential to staffing Yellowknife businesses and the territory should press the federal government to streamline the hiring process. 

"Employers would love to hire someone local from Yellowknife or someone within the N.W.T., and certainly a Canadian willing to relocate to our beautiful city, but they're just not there," she said. "So we've identified immigration as one area where we can help address labour shortages."

Petter Jacobsen has been through the process of obtaining his work visa many times and he says it's taking longer now than in the past. 

Originally from Norway, Jacobsen has lived in Yellowknife for 12 years.