A British Columbia trade union is calling on Ottawa to make improvements to the federal immigration system after its purported failure to “address construction labour shortages.”
“We are facing a significant labour crunch, and while Canadian construction workers should have first access to available jobs, we recognize the need for new entrants to help to meet the growing need for skilled workers,” said Brynn Bourke, BC Building Trades (BCBT) executive director, as reported by Human Resources Director.
“Instead of ignoring the problem in construction, we’re calling on the government of Canada to put a special focus on immigration in B.C.”
The union claimed that neither the federal, nor the provincial governments, are bringing in enough tradespeople to address the crunch being faced by the sector.
Those who do end up coming are often under a temporary permit that affords them lower pay and rights.
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As per BCBT, 4.7 per cent of BC’s construction workforce is made up of temporary workers – a disproportionately large amount in comparison to the Canada-wide share of 2.1 per cent.
“This undercuts wages and employment opportunities for local workers, denies migrant workers important employment rights and protections, and gives employers that overutilize these temporary programs a competitive advantage over companies hiring Canadians,” read the report.
Businesses’ want for TFWs has grown across Canada recently, with employers being allowed to hire more than twice the people through the federal program in 2023 as they did five years ago, according to a CBC report from June 24.
Construction workers were one of the job categories with the greatest number of approvals last year. In 2018, there were 132 approvals, and 5.4 thousand in 2023 – a 3,955 per cent change in five years.
While other sectors are restricted to hiring 20 per cent of their staff through the TFWP, the construction industry is allowed a 30 per cent hiring cap.
The industry in BC needs 52,600 more workers by 2032, and 30 per cent will need to come through immigration avoid a deficit of 18,700 workers.
The Federal Skilled Trades Program, which is designed to welcome tradespeople to Canada, is especially underutilized, only bringing 270 workers to BC from 2019 to 2023.
“There’s clearly companies where they use this as their business model,” said Bourke.
“Those migrant workers … they’re being denied the employment rights and protections that workers here should have.”
