Restaurants Canada says recent comments by B.C. Premier David Eby comments on the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program are missing the reality of the foodservice industry in British Columbia.
BC’s foodservice industry generates more than $20 billion in economic activity, representing nearly 5% of the province’s GDP. It employs nearly 183,000 British Columbians, including 68,000 youth, representing one in five youth jobs, said the national organization on Wednesday.
“However, there are geographic areas and skill gaps that make it necessary for some foodservice businesses to recruit temporary foreign workers. Chefs and cooks make up the majority of TFWs in foodservice. These are skilled workers that require specific training and we don’t have the domestic labour supply to meet demand. Tourism-heavy areas with aging populations often don’t have the youth necessary to meet the sharp rise in demand during specific periods of the year. Additionally, 24-hour businesses, like highway comfort stations, have a hard time staffing overnight shifts and may resort to the program,” said Kelly Higginson, President and CEO, Restaurants Canada.
“TFWs represent just 3% of the total foodservice workforce in Canada, but without those critical workers, many foodservice businesses would not be able to operate. They may have to shorten their hours, reduce their Canadian staff or simply close their doors.
“TFWs are always a last resort as it’s much easier and less costly to hire local talent. Businesses have to prove they have made a significant effort to recruit locally by posting the position on job boards, at the prevailing market wage before they can apply for a Labour Market Impact Assessment. It can then take over a year and cost nearly $9,000 to recruit a single TFW.
“Restaurants Canada agrees that there are changes to be made to the TFW program in order to ensure it supports Canadian and foreign workers and aligns with our economic needs. But those changes should not be made without consulting the businesses they will impact and taking into account the real gaps that exist in Canada’s labour market.”
Restaurants Canada is a national, not-for-profit association advancing Canada’s diverse and dynamic foodservice industry. Restaurants are a $124 billion industry employing nearly 1.2 million Canadians and the number one source of first-time jobs in Canada.
According to a recent CBC news report, Eby called for the end of Canada’s temporary foreign worker (TFW) program — blaming Ottawa’s flawed immigration policies for filling up homeless shelters and food banks.
“The temporary foreign worker program is not working. It should be cancelled or significantly reformed,” Eby said during an unrelated announcement in Surrey, B.C., last Thursday.
“We can’t have an immigration system that fills up our homeless shelters and our food banks. We can’t have an immigration system that outpaces our ability to build schools and housing. And we can’t have an immigration program that results in high youth unemployment.”
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Translation – we don’t want to pay more than minimum wage (or very slightly above) for skilled back of house workers, so we would rather import and pay them minimum wage with the opportunity to immigrate to Canada than hire and train local workers or pay them a fair wage.
Since the servers are tipped and don’t rely on the employer for topping up their wages, they don’t have an issue with retaining skilled servers. It’s only the kitchen staff that are under pressure because they work in difficult conditions (high temperatures, risk of slip and fall, burns, etc.)
Since tipped servers are mostly / heavily subsidized by their customers whereas the BOH is not nearly subsidized to the same level, the owners might need to actually pay their staff properly if they wish to retain them. Shocker.