"In our town, foreign workers are not a convenience, they are a necessity," John Farrell said in a presentation to city council.
Dire situation
Farrell leads Community Futures, a non-profit development corporation that helps entrepreneurs on the North Coast and Haida Gwaii with their journeys in business. He is also a business owner.
He and several other prominent business owners, including representatives from the Crest Hotel, Highliner Hotel, and Opa Sushi, presented at the regular city council meeting on March 24.
Additionally, members of the Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Prince Rupert were present to show their concern about the negative impact recent stricter immigration regulations are having on their workforce.
Many businesses in Prince Rupert struggle to recruit local residents or Canadians from other regions to move north for work, resulting in a heavy reliance on temporary foreign workers and international students to staff their operations.
Skeena Taxi has about 60 per cent of its drivers on temporary permits, Safeway employs 50 per cent of its 78 staff with foreign workers, and Save On Foods has 35 per cent. Tim Hortons has 30 per cent, Chances Casino employs 55 per cent, and three local restaurants are 100 per cent reliant on temporary foreign workers.
The Crest employs 35 per cent, and McDonald's has 50 of its 80 employees on temporary permits. And that is just a slice of the pie.
"We had an employee who was renewing his LMIA, totally legal to work here, it came across a desk on an IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada) and a decision was made to pull their work visa on the spot," said Christopher Colussi, general manager of Crest Hotel. "So, on the day of, they lost all their Canadian rights. We didn't touch on this [during the presentation] but some people even had their kids kicked out of school and they lost health care."
"This is not a minor concern, this is a crisis," said Farrell. "We're asking the federal government to do one simple thing and that is: treat rural, northern B.C. differently." said Farrell.
The same unfortunate songs are also echoeing in small communities such as Terrace, Kitimat, Smithers and Houston.
Corrine Warburton, co-owner of the Highliner Hotel, explained their restaurant, The Ridge, had to "suddenly and literally shut down" when their head chef, a foreign worker, was denied an extension. Unable to find a replacement, they continue to face severe staff shortages in housekeeping, front desk, and restaurant positions, resulting in monetary losses.
"This is a very local result of the federal policy," she said.
Kristi Farrell, co-owner of Opa Sushi, has run her business for 25 years, with 20 of those years spent bringing on foreign staff to join her team. Over this time, she has employed more than 110 workers and their families, 90 per cent of whom have obtained Permanent Residency (PR) in Canada, with some even going on to own their own businesses.
However, some of her staff have recently been told to stop working and are given a 90-day grace period with no income or job security, leaving them stuck at home with only slim hope.
"We are a viable, very good, long-term business; probably we could go on for another 30 years... [the immigration caps] are doing a complete disservice to our community and disruption to the business," said Kristi.
"I'm very confident that our business will be closing due to this if we don't have some ability to change the structure of it."
Business owners echoed a common sentiment: their businesses don't operate like those in big cities. Despite offering positions to local people, no one is applying for those minimum or slightly above minimum-wage jobs that keep their small businesses afloat.
The changes
Since Fall 2024, the Canadian government has been tightening its Temporary Foreign Worker Program regulations by implementing stricter Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) requirements for employers. They also reduced the cap on the number of foreign workers employers can hire, denied processing of LMIA applications for positions in certain areas, and limited the maximum employment duration to one year instead of two in the low-wage stream.
Moreover, the LMIA, which is the first key component for allowing foreign workers to enter Canada, is handled by Service Canada, while work permits and visas are issued by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. The lack of timely coordination between these two departments has led to significant frustration among workers, business owners, and community leaders, resulting in long backlogs and delays in obtaining either the LMIA or the necessary work permits.
In some cases, the LMIA approval takes so long that workers' visas expire before they receive it, forcing them to return to their home countries. Additionally, several foreign workers in Prince Rupert who have successfully obtained work visa extensions for the same job roles they held in the past are now facing blatant rejections.
"The immigration issue has become deeply politicized, mostly at the hands of the Conservatives. And the Liberals, in turn, made some rash decisions that are now having a really difficult impact on our economy," said Skeena鈥揃ulkley Valley MP Taylor Bachrach.
The federal government states these changes support their 2025-2027 Levels Plan, which aims to drastically reduce immigration over two years to ease pressures on housing, infrastructure, and social services, with Canada's long-term economic goals in mind.
In the trenches
Lalit Bhatia, an immigrant from India, joined the locally beloved spot, Opa Sushi in 2021 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through hard work and determination, he rose to become the head chef, with plans to buy a home in Prince Rupert eventually.
That is, until things began to take an unexpected turn.
"It's a very solid possibility at this point that I will leave on 15th [April], it's a heavy-hearted situation," said Bhatia. "Spending four years in one kitchen, in one restaurant, and everything is good. Your job is good, Your owner is supportive, your team is brilliant, so leaving at this point, only because of them not issuing LMIA and permit is a hard situation. We have to leave, that's the rules."
He notes that even after being a Red Seal certified worker who is paying taxes like other Canadians, his future has now become daunting.
Bhatia applied for his LMIA on Nov. 6, 2024 and still hasn't heard back. While waiting for it, his work permit expired. He worries that even if he magically receives his LMIA tomorrow, he won't be able to work because renewing the work visa after that could take another three to four months.
"At this point, our mental state is f****d up completely. Every morning, when we wake up, the first thing I do is to check my email, whether I receive some LMIA or some permit or not."
"It's very sad, very depressing, but it is what it is."
Bhatia plans to return to Delhi, but is overwhelmed by the prospect of adjusting to the stark differences in work culture and salary.
"One of my friends from Highliner, his grace period got over. And that guy was literally crying when I went to drop him at the Prince Rupert airport. He already flew back to India, and now again, he's waiting for LMIA, but still no response. Not just me, my other friends, we all are suffering," said Bhatia.
The plea
Farrell hopes to use the month leading up to the federal election to build momentum on this issue, ensuring that action can be taken immediately once Parliament reconvenes.
"It's unlikely that much is going to happen over the next month because of the election that's underway... But this region deserves better policy, and we're going to keep pushing for that," said Bachrach. He previously submitted a formal letter outlining this issue to Marc Miller, who was minister of IRCC in December.
The presenters requested that the Prince Rupert city council sign a declaration to address the ongoing staff shortages, which will then be shared with local governments along Highway 16, business leaders, and other key groups.
They are asking for the grandfathering of existing LMIA assessments, the reversal of hiring caps, and the immediate renewal of work permits for northern and rural B.C. Additionally, they seek a faster approval process for permits to avoid disruptions in business operations.
"Fourth, and most importantly, support rural Canada with immigration policies that reflect our needs and protect the dignity of the people who come here to work," said Farrell.
"Workers are being told to stop working immediately... their families are in limbo and businesses are scrambling. This isn't just inefficient and unreasonable, it is unsustainable."
