SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The city has been granted an exemption from restrictions on temporary foreign workers in the food services, accommodation and retail trade sectors by the federal government.

The co-owner of Javaroma, Rami Kassem, stands in his coffee shop on Franklin Avenue. Kassem thinks the recent exemption on the ban for Temporary Foreign Workers is good for Yellowknife businesses who often struggle to hire due to the city's low employment rate and high competition for stable job candidates. - Karen K. Ho/NNSL photo

Education Minister Jackson Lafferty cited the city's low unemployment rate as the main reason for being granted the exemption, stating in a news release, "It is very difficult for many employers to recruit and retain qualified workers to sustain and grow their business."

Laffery said access to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program for employers in Yellowknife was "a critical mechanism to help them fill critical labour shortages and sustain their workforce."

Rami Kassem, co-owner of Javaroma, told Yellowknifer while he has never employed someone as part of the program, continued access gave him and other business owners a key additional option for hiring and any plans for expansion.

"For sure we would use (it) in the future," he said. "It allows us to be more flexible."

Kassem said that there needed to be more programs to bring people up North. "It's very important to have (this) program for the economy of the Northwest Territories," he said, adding that one year, turnover at the coffee shop was so high he went through 60 people. "It's hard to be competitive with the mines and government jobs."

Javaroma currently has staff members from countries like Japan and Taiwan, but Kassem said all of them were employed through visas they obtained themselves. Kassem said his one attempt to hire a coffee roaster through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program actually failed because the candidate's wife didn't receive a visa to come to Canada.

In the past, Sushi Cafe owner Raymond Li told Yellowknifer that low-wage general worker (positions) cannot be filled by Canadians. "Especially in Yellowknife, because we have to compete with the mines (where) general labour (pays) about $15 or $16 an hour," he told the paper last June, emphasizing the program never was a money-saver for him.

Li said that foreign workers are not cheap labour due to the need to subsidize for room and board to make it affordable for them to live in Canada and work. While starting wages at Sushi Cafe are between $11 and $12 per hour, far below the territory's median wage of $32.53 per hour, Li said "in the end, we are paying more."

Staff at Sushi Cafe declined to comment for this story.

The issue of businesses possibly abusing employees hired as temporary foreign workers is the main reason for why the program was shut down on a national level.

When asked about this, Andy Bevan, assistant deputy minister of labour and income security, emphasized it was a federal program run by Employment and Social Development Canada's minister Pierre Poilievre.

"We don't administer it, never have," he said, referring it as a "program of last resort" for Yellowknife employers. "Even with the recent change and recent announcement, that doesn't change our role in it."

However, Bevan acknowledged ECE was responsible for administering the territory's Employment Standards Act.

"To be clear, that doesn't matter if they're a temporary foreign worker, a Northern resident or a visitor from another part of the country," he said. "We treat all our employees the same, it's not exclusive to the Temporary Foreign Workers Program."

-with files from Walter Strong

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