Despite the labor shortage, foreign workers from the Magdalen Islands have had to return to Mexico while waiting for fishing to resume, as they are unable to find another job in the tourism sector for a few weeks.
• Also read: The number of job offers in the country continues to increase
To pressure Ottawa, local elected officials again denounce the deviation of the rules of the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP).
They quickly demanded that the PTET take an extraordinary and derogatory measure in the form of a pilot project. We want to enable these foreign temporary workers to work in companies other than the ones they belong to.
According to the Magdalen Islands mayor, the government apparatus lacks flexibility, especially amid a staffing crisis.
BIG NEEDS
“When a fishing company puts 200 Mexicans to work for a few weeks and has to send them home for part of the summer to bring them back in the fall, that’s nonsense indeed. . These workers are just waiting to work while we have food, shelter and tourism needs, explains Jonathan Lapierre.
“We cannot deprive ourselves of workers at the moment. The federal government definitely needs to relax the rules. It’s quite complex across the country. I have not given up hope and we believe that we will achieve something. The need is so great,” he adds.
PQ MP Joël Arseneau has just written to Minister for National Revenue Diane Lebouthillier on the subject. “It creates costs and a reorganization that companies could do without,” says Arseneau.
ADVANTAGES
“In the peach field there is a production stop during the summer season and part of it has to be sent back to Mexico to come back in the fall. Obviously, summer time would be conducive to employment in agriculture or tourism, but the program does not allow for it,” the provincial official-elect reiterates.
Some of these workers would even be eligible and encouraged to become unemployment insurance recipients until their company’s activities resumed.
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