{"id":31479,"date":"2025-07-02T02:52:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T02:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/31479\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T02:52:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T02:52:14","slug":"our-towns-going-to-collapse-northern-b-c-businesses-demand-ottawa-revisit-immigration-work-permit-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/31479\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Our town\u2019s going to collapse\u2019: Northern B.C. businesses demand Ottawa revisit immigration, work permit cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Community leaders in Northern B.C. are demanding action from Ottawa to address a workforce crisis they claim is threatening businesses.<\/p>\n

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Prince Rupert is home to the third largest port in the country and, according to the Community Futures Development Corporation, offers unionized jobs which allow young people to move up quickly and afford a house within three years.<\/p>\n

But executive director John Farrell says the local economy in the northwest coast city of 14,000, is at risk due to federal government changes to immigration and work permit policies.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, we have two permits that are under siege,\u201d Farrell told the business community at a Northern BC Call to Action session on June 25.<\/p>\n

The Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program, which fuels the service industry, and provides 90 per cent of the staff at Farrell\u2019s restaurant, Opa Sushi and the international student program, recently underwent significant cuts.<\/p>\n

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International students he said, are no longer going through the program at the local college.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat pipeline was cut by the federal government,\u201d Farrell told Global News in an interview.<\/p>\n

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In 2024, Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada capped study permit applications in an effort to ease the strain on housing, health care and other services \u2013 a measure it said has reduced the number of incoming international students by about 40 per cent.<\/p>\n

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As of Sept. 26, 2024, employers can hire no more than 10 per cent of their total workforce through\u00a0 the TFW program, and workers can only stay for one year instead of two.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re capped, we can\u2019t bring any more workers in,\u201d said Farrell. \u201cSo once a worker leaves, we\u2019re just that much further down the hole.\u201d<\/p>\n

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At the local McDonald\u2019s, temporary foreign workers make up more than 60 per cent of the workforce.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe domestic workforce just simply is not available,\u201d manager Michael Seabrook told the community meeting June 25. \u201cThese individuals are not just filling positions, they\u2019re the reason our business is able to operate day in and day out.\u201d<\/p>\n

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