There’s no doubt that many of the businesses in the Westlock area survive and thrive with the help of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP).
It’s understandable then, that many local business owners are concerned about the federal government’s moratorium on the program, announced last month in the face of overwhelming evidence of abuse. If you do the math, it’s not too hard to see why this program has been so well used in Alberta. With the explosive growth in oil and gas development over the last 20 years, there is unprecedented access to high-paying oilfield jobs in Northern Alberta.
Of course, there are many workers from the Westlock area who make the commute to do the traditional 11-on-three-off work rotation, or any of a number of other variations on it. The result is that without a high-school diploma, workers can bring home six-figure salaries as long as they’re willing to work hard.
This leaves local businesses, particularly in the service sector, in a tough spot. You can’t offer what’s traditionally a low-wage job to someone who knows they can make three or four times that much if they just head up north.
So as a business owner, the options are either pay employees more in order to attract them, or find employees who are willing to work for less.
If you pay employees more, it comes out of an owner’s bottom line or else that cost is passed on to the customers — neither of which is a palatable option.
Enter the TFWP. Workers from other countries that might not enjoy the same standard of living as Canada can apply for these jobs, and make more here than they would back at home.
It’s a win-win-win, right?
But it’s not necessarily that simple, as the many reports of abuse in the system have shown. Tales abound of business owners who will bypass local workers with token job advertisements simply to meet the requirements of the program. More tales abound of workers being mistreated and denied basic rights once they arrive in Alberta.
It’s a small number of businesses that engage in these nefarious practices, perhaps, but the problem exists nonetheless.
There’s no easy solution to the labour crunch we’re currently feeling in this province, but any solution that’s worthwhile will be one that respects the rights of all workers — foreign and otherwise.
