REGINA – A growing number of companies in Saskatchewan are looking outside of the province when hiring.
There are currently 3,000 companies in Saskatchewan that have requested the federal government’s approval to hire people from outside the country.
“In our province, our track record has been that almost 60 per cent of foreign workers become part of the immigrant nominee program and become residents. We’d like to see that number improve,” said Brad Wall.
Meanwhile, leaders in the labour force think the program isn’t the best strategy to bring new workers to the country.
“It opens the door to abuse on vulnerable workers coming here to the country, who may or may not be comfortable in the knowledge of what their rights are with respect to treatment in the workplace. We’re concerned about downwards pressure on wages,” said Larry Hubich, President of the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour.
The province maintains though, that the program is used as a last resort option for crown corporations.
“Basically SaskTel does not recruit foreign workers actively,” said Michelle Englot, Director of External Communications for SaskTel. “We do always attempt to find qualified candidates within the province first.”
In the past year, SaskTel has only employed one temporary foreign worker.
Still, critics of the program are urging the government to instead look to improve immigration policies.
The federal government says that Temporary Foreign Worker Program continues to evolve, including significant changes over the past several months.
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