Chamber Manager Jeff Richards

The Weyburn & District Chamber of Commerce has reviewed the Government of Canada’s new overhaul of the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program and is disappointed at the lack of respect the new program shows for business.

“We’ve been working hard on this file and we’ve submitted multiple submissions to the Federal Government, but it seems as though the Government is prepared to dismantle the program,” stated Chamber Manager Jeff Richards. “For many businesses in Weyburn this will make staffing their operations harder than ever, and the Chamber is very concerned for the well-being of those businesses and the people who work in them.” 

A few key highlights of the overhaul include instituting a new Labour Market Impact Assessment fee on applications of $1,000 per employee, this is up from $275; reducing the period of time a TFW may work in Canada; and restricting the number of TFW’s in an individual workplace to a maximum of 10 percent.

These changes, among others, effectively make the program ineffective and will force business to alter their operations to deal with the labour shortage, according to Richards.

“The next steps for the Chamber will be to meet again with our Member of Parliament Ed Komarnicki to discuss what other venues the Federal Government can suggest. In addition we will be meeting with our MLA to voice our concerns, and we will continue to work with Chambers across Saskatchewan to seek solutions,” concluded Richards.