Photo: Darryl Dyck The Canadian Press This decision will also affect permit renewals, and by the same token “qualified, well-integrated workers who meet the real needs of Montreal businesses.”
Published at 1:18 p.m. Updated at 5:08 p.m.
The freeze on hiring low-wage temporary foreign workers displeases both the political opposition and businesses, but for opposite reasons. Employers fear being deprived of workers and are alarmed by the fate of workers already in the country. The other parties in the National Assembly are concerned about the lack of scope of this freeze and how it will be implemented.
On Tuesday morning, Premier François Legault announced a six-month moratorium on positions paying less than $27.47 an hour in Montreal, a measure that will affect several thousand people starting September 3.
“It complicates our lives enormously,” observes Montreal businessman Nader Azrak. The owner of a dozen restaurant franchises in the city has recruited nearly 20% of his staff through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. “We were looking to acquire other [restaurants]. With news like this, it puts the brakes on.”
Several of his employees were preparing to renew their two-year contracts. With Tuesday’s news, he now expects to have to reduce his number of employees. “The solution before [hiring these workers] was to reduce our opening hours. We’re going to go back to that. We’re going to have to reduce our opening hours. The service is going to take a hit, for sure. It’s going to be slower.”
Permit renewals will be able to continue if Montreal companies manage to increase the salary to more than $27.47, which Mr. Azrak is now considering. “We’re going to have to increase the salary we pay to keep them. I don’t see any other solutions.”
If Montreal was targeted, it was in particular because its unemployment rate is higher than in the rest of the province, specified Immigration Minister Christine Fréchette during the announcement.
Nevertheless, there would still be 2,890 vacant positions in the manufacturing sector, argues Manufacturiers et Exportateurs du Québec (MEQ). “Companies would not recruit abroad if the existing labour pool here could meet demand,” says Véronique Proulx, the organization's president and CEO.
International recruitment is not the first choice for manufacturers, she points out, because it is a real “obstacle course” that has a significant cost. The freeze, although for six months, throws “a cat among the pigeons,” according to Ms. Proulx.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000“We’re missing the target,” also laments the Quebec Employers Council through its president, Karl Blackburn.
François Legault is insisting on the “explosion” in the number of temporary immigrants to justify his announcement, while it is the excessive number of asylum seekers in Quebec that is causing this overflow, according to Mr. Blackburn. “It is too easy to go directly to target temporary foreign workers to solve a problem that is caused by another pool of people, asylum seekers.”
“Services, retail, restaurants and manufacturing” will suffer from the government’s most recent decision, he adds. “Montrealers will see their expenses increase, adding to the inflationary pressure that is already reducing their purchasing power.”
This announcement is “window dressing”, added the Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN) in a press release, which also says it is in favor of a tightening of the rules. “The government is neither promising to improve the lot of other temporary workers who are not targeted by this announcement nor to ensure that employers assume their responsibilities. »
Political reactions
For Québec solidaire, the measure is an “admission of failure”. It is “improvised and inadequate”, declared Tuesday Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, deputy and responsible for solidarity in matters of immigration. “Québec solidaire has been [for] a reduction in temporary immigration to Quebec for years, but in a precise and targeted manner while avoiding harm to our key sectors,” he detailed.
The party also recalls that the government spends several million dollars in public funds to organize recruitment missions abroad, as revealed Le Devoir last year.
Minister Fréchette addressed this aspect at a press conference Tuesday morning, saying she is currently “reviewing all the actions we are taking.” The people recruited during the Journées Québec à l’étranger are mostly destined for jobs in the regions and in protected sectors, she also specified.
The announcement is “minimal” in the eyes of Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, the leader of the Parti Québécois. “It’s very little, very late,” he declared at a press briefing in Quebec City: “In short, it means that the symptoms of the CAQ’s loss of control over immigration thresholds will continue to be felt.”
Mr. Legault also explained that he is acting on the components or programs over which the province has power, which “testifies to the fact that he is completely overwhelmed by the immigration situation,” in the eyes of Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon. The latter estimates the potential reduction at less than 2,000 people, or less than 1% of the total number of non-permanent residents currently in Quebec, he recalled.
The Quebec Liberal Party, for its part, believes that the government is “losing control of immigration because it is not planning,” according to its immigration critic, André Morin, who is proposing to include the number of temporary workers in the multi-year immigration planning.
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