Northplex Ltd. builds modular homes, and employs over 80 foreign workers through their Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) and soon that program will be seeing some major changes, and not only for this company.
The Government of Canada has made alterations in regards to the TFWP, and this could have an impact on thousands of businesses across the country.
“We have 140 employees, and approximately 44 per cent of our employees are foreign workers,” Tiffany Rickard, Human Resource Generalist at Northplex said. “Of course with the changes that are coming we have to reduce that to 30 per cent.”
It is rumored that companies across the country have been misusing the program, causing Stephen Harper and the Canadian government to take a stand.
The adjustments made are causing companies across the country to cut back to 30 per cent of foreign workers, just this year. Next year is to drop to 20 percent, followed by ten per cent the following year.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that they loose those workers all at once. Frank Deys, President of Northplex Ltd., said that the government is allowing the foreign workers to finish their term, but are not allowed to renew their contract until they fit the 30 per cent max.
“You are capped at 30 per cent, so those who are coming up for renewal will not be renewed until you are under 30 per cent,” Deys said. “So you don’t physically lay people off or cut anyone off, you just don’t get the renewals.”
Northplex hires workers from places as far as Mexico, Jamaica, the UK, Germany, Vietnam and the US, some of which have been with the company for six years or more, and are some of their more experienced employees.
“We aren’t losing our entry level workers. Some of these workers have been here six years or longer… So some of them are some of our most experienced employees and we are losing that experience,” Rickard said.
“So from our perspective the problem is that we are in a growing business that is looking at increasing its staffing long term and now we are actually going to be losing a certain segment of our staffing,” Deys said. “Now it’s like we are being handcuffed in our ability to grow successfully.”
The company has worked hard at moving forward from 45 people to an excess of 150 over the last two years.
“How we have been able to do that is a combination of the local where we can, and then also with some foreign labour,” Deys said, adding that the changes being made to the program could jeopardize the continued growth.
In response to the adjustments, Northplex has been modifying some of the career and scheduling options available in hopes of drawing in some local workers.
“We are trying to find different programs domestically to try and attract people to Barrhead, and continue to hire local where we can,” Deys said.
The company is willing to work around schedules that include stay at home moms who are wanting to fill in their afternoons with a few hours of work, farmers who just need work during the winter, as well as part-time work.
“We are definitely taking action to try and find different ways to attract people,” Deys added. “This region’s unemployment is under four per cent… it’s difficult to continue to attract new employees for our growth.”
Deys said that it is even difficult to hire within Canada, and that trying to attract workers from other provinces is often difficult to accomplish.
“How do you attract them to Alberta and move them away from their families and everything else?” Deys said.
The TFWP has been in place with the company since before changing hands several years ago, and since then has been implemented to even more of an extent.
These changes will have a drastic impact on Northplex, and Deys has turned to Rob Merrifield’s office and explained just how drastic it could end up being.
“While we have had some growth in the last two years… the inability to attract new employees could result in us being unable to fulfill orders in a timely manner, so you could potentially lose business,” Deys said. “I think the bottom line is that it has the potential where instead of creating new jobs for Canadian’s it could actually cost Canadians jobs if certain companies are not successful.”
These changes are not only affecting the company, but also the current foreign workers employed at Northplex.
“It is causing an impact right now on morale for those people who know they will be going home,” Deys said, adding that some of the workers are looking for work on the side in order to save money for when they are sent home.
“It’s causing some heartache here.”
The transition for businesses will be difficult, and even Northplex is facing those challenges head on.
Deys said that they are hoping to hold on to the foreign workers they have, however if the company wishes to do so, they will need to hire more local workers to meet the quota.
“For us to be able to do that we have to grow even further domestically in our numbers to support that ratio that the government has implemented,” Deys said. “We have to be able to meet those obligations on those opportunities to be able to continue to grow. So there are some challenges for us.”
The communities that support the foreign workers are also going to be impacted, Deys said.
“This is a small community,” Deys said. “This impact that would be on us with losing foreign workers, will also have an impact on the community. You will be losing people who are buying groceries and supporting the local businesses.”
“It has an impact on the community and we are certainly trying to encourage our employee group to buy locally and support the local economy,” Deys said. “There is certainly some negative things with these changes.”
Deys said that the Government may not be looking at the situation and making changes with each community in mind, but the country and the companies within it, as a whole.
“Every community is different,” Deys said. “I am surprised the province didn’t have more input.”
