Drumheller & District Chamber of Commerce President John Shoff said employers wanting to remain competitive need to look at different options.
John Shoff, president of the Drumheller and District Chamber of Commerce is still hoping for answers from the federal government on access to labour after it made significant reforms to the temporary foreign workers program.
The service sector in Drumheller felt the crunch when the program was suspended earlier this year, and then was reintroduced with reforms. With the 2015 summer season looming, Shoff is hoping to hear something.
“I do know of a lot of areas in Alberta where it doesn’t matter what the wage is, they can’t get employees,” said Shoff.
He says chasing wages to get people does nothing but drive inflation. With temporary foreign workers, he says it costs employers more to bring them in, but it keeps wages normalized.
“When you are looking at an unskilled entry level job, if they have to be paid $20 per hour, now you are paying the guy who is pouring a cup of coffee $20 per hour, and you multiply that by all the people he needs to run that business, that cost has gone up exponentially, What do you do? You charge more for that cup of coffee,” he said.
He said wage is not the primary factor however, it is just making sure there is access to labour.
“It (temporary foreign workers program) kept businesses alive. You have businesses out there where it doesn’t matter what you offer for a wage, there is no one coming in to apply for that position,” said Shoff.
Alberta is heading into a new territory with the declining price of oil. This could mean a slow down in the sector, which could add to the labour pool. Shoff said he doesn’t expect it to change the labour situation in Drumheller.
“It will slow a bit, but you still have to maintain infrastructure here,” he said. “I don’t think it will effect us much, a lot of our industry is on the service side. It will impact us a bit, but it certainly won’t impact us as much as in areas where they are doing heavy exploration.”
Crowfoot MP Kevin Sorenson acknowledges that labour is one of the biggest issues facing the Alberta Economy.
“We want to make sure that Canadians have the first opportunity for jobs." That being said, the Minister has stated "That we have some parts of the country where we have long-term labour issues and we cannot continue to address it with a temporary foreign worker program. It is going to take something more permanent,” he said. “So looking forward we are going to be looking at ways that we can keep this economy moving ahead and we recognize that access to labour is one of those things that can stall an economy.”
He says employers have to look at a number of options to remain competitive.
“Immigration numbers are one way to address it. There is a number of other ways we can look at it. The program is still there, although it says you can’t exceed the 30 per cent of the workforce. There were some businesses that were using it to as their business management plan for labour.”
He says one of the problems with the Temporary Foreign Workers Program was there was no way to fast track immigration.
“The Minister of Immigration or the Minister of Employment say we can’t continue to have a temporary program solve a permanent problem. This country was built on immigration and we still need this.”
Both Shoff and Sorenson see better movement across provincial borders as a factor that could alleviate the situation.
“We have to have programs to encourage individuals to go where the opportunities are. That is why my grandfather came up here in 1905. He came for the job, he came as a way to sustain himself. We have to make sure our policies reflect that,” Sorenson said.
