Opening the door to foreign workers

The Canadian government has answered the call for help from Alberta oil sands developers and other resource sectors by relaxing the rules for hiring foreign workers.

Citizenship and Immigration Minister Monte Solberg has agreed to a list of 180 occupations in Alberta and 135 in British Columbia where employers will now have to advertise for only one week before they can move outside Canada to fill vacancies.

Until now, the foreign worker program has been more complicated process, involving a long recruitment effort to determine whether Canadians were qualified and available for the jobs.

Across the petroleum industry, particularly the oil sands sector, the shortage of construction workers has been cited as the primary cause of budget overruns that have amounted to billions of dollars in the past five years.

Even under the old rules, the federal government approved the hiring of 20,000 temporary foreign workers for Alberta in 2005 and expects to approve twice that number this year.

Alberta Federation of Labor President Gil McGowan, while acknowledging the plight of employers, said the government is creating an “underclass” of workers by catering to “short-term business interests” and not allowing foreigners to enter Canada as full citizens. However, Solberg said he is working on new regulations that would allow temporary workers to remain permanently in Canada.

—Gary Park