A union representative for a beef processing plant south of Calgary is warning of worsening labour shortages if immigration policy proposals that narrowly passed in Alberta’s referendum are enacted.
“These are tough and high turnover jobs with few candidates lining up to fill them,” said Faduma Ahmed, with the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 401 at Cargill’s abattoir in High River, Alta.
With 98 per cent of polls reporting in Monday’s referendum, a slim majority of votes were cast in favour of limiting access to or charging a fee for provincially funded services based on immigration status. Premier Danielle Smith’s government had argued that the cost to provide health care and education to temporary Alberta residents amounts to $1 billion a year and that a surge in newcomers has strained affordability and services.
But critics have warned that the referendum’s outcome could make Alberta less attractive to newcomers at a time when jobs desperately need to be filled.
At the Cargill plant, temporary foreign workers, refugees, permanent residents and citizens from all over the globe work side by side and all pay taxes, said Ahmed. It’s back-breaking work, with staffers often having to hoist whole carcasses.
“When we sit down to eat, we rarely think about the intense and the gruelling labour it takes to get the food onto our tables, right on our plate,” she said, adding that workers have come to her concerned about their ability to pay for health care and school for their children.
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“They are foundational to keeping our economy moving, and they are navigating the exact same punishing affordability crisis as every other Albertan.”
Ahmed said the union will draw a “hard line” if the proposals become law.
“We will fight to ensure immigrant workers receive the same services they do today, up to and including making the employers pay at the bargaining table to fund the differences.”
Another sector that relies heavily on immigration is health care for seniors.
“Often we’ll find they’ll work in roles that maybe some Canadians may not be interested in,” said Leah Lechelt, executive director of the Christian Health Association of Alberta, which represents non-profits that employ 22,000 staff across the province.
She said some college programs for health-care aides have closed or reduced their enrolment simply because there haven’t been enough applications domestically.
The workforce hails from around the world, and are mostly health-care aides, but also cleaning and food-service staff, Lechelt said. They deal with vulnerable patients, so regulations largely limit those jobs to permanent residents and citizens.
“It’s really a very attractive role for somebody who is fairly new to Canada and sometimes is working on some English language proficiency skills.”
The association has established an apprenticeship program that enables those in entry-level jobs, like housekeeping, to train on-site to become health-care aides and pursue a better-paying career path.
“And then we can backfill those positions with other newcomers, maybe starting out in their journey in Canada.”
One of the referendum proposals asked whether Albertans would support the province taking more control of immigration from the federal government.
It was an idea the Business Council of Alberta has long advocated, said president Adam Legge.
“There’s a bit of a better on-the-ground intel perspective compared to a centralized decision in Ottawa,” he said.
“Oftentimes there are some skills and geographic mismatches between what Ottawa approves on an immigration basis and what is needed.”
For instance, he said there’s a huge demand for workers in the skilled trades, like heavy-duty mechanics, welders and electricians.
He said he heard from members generally that they don’t want to see anything deter people from choosing to live in Alberta.
Research by University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe commissioned by the Calgary Chamber of Commerce found immigrants paid an estimated $4.1 billion in Alberta personal income taxes in 2026.
It also found immigrants younger than 40 had a net fiscal contribution of almost $1 billion, after the cost of provincial family programs, workers’ compensation and social assistance are accounted for.
If Ab has become less attractive then the business involved will have to hire at a better rate or better conditions to attract worker locally.
Sounds good to me as a lifetime tax paying worker. When I & my relatives can’t get medical care because of overcrowding,common sense needs to kick in.
FYI Impressed with the comments where a name is attached & think you should not publish all the anonymous comments at all….cowards
Close the border and end foreign aid now
Good. They got the clear message there is no more special treatment. You are equal and owe just as much as those born here if you want to participate.
I remember when a Butcher was an important part of the community. Now behemoths like Cargill has made meat cutting a low paid assembly line with working conditions and wages so horrible that they only can get desperate immigrants to work there.
I echo what some are saying here. I work in hospitals. They are overburdened by newcomers. A system will not survive when those using the system do not pay into it. The unskilled foreign students who use food banks and get everything covered do not pay taxes. Add in all of the new immigrants who immediately bring their elderly family members here, that have never contributed to canada or paid any income tax and you have a system that is collapsing in front of our eyes.
lee, heather, danielle smith in her self serving selfrightiousness made half a million albertans show the worls how stupid and selfish they are.
Cargill makes a massive profit every year if they passed some on to employees it would make it easier to find workers here already
The referendum was never about people that come here with skills, get a job and pay taxes, those will always be needed. It’s about the one’s the LPC brings here that have nothing to offer and expect a free ride.
Immigration isn’t bad:
I live in Fort McMurray. As horrible as this sounds, my (adult)son and I have a little contest we play at Walmart. You get a point for finding an English speaking employee with decent manners. Loser has to buy McDonald’s, and that isn’t much better. Ask any parent of a teenager or someone looking for an entry level job, those jobs no longer exist here.
My local elementary school has had to add a portable. Our teachers are pissed off because they did not go to university with the intention of teaching ESL. Our hospitals are not for “sick” kids that are just fine as they jump on the chairs and, I kid you not, order food.
Am I a racist? I didn’t use to sound like one. Now I am just angry beyond the words I can write here without sounding like one.
That being said, we have some wonderful newcomers here that have decided that assimilation is a good thing and that the perks of living here are a privilege not a right. Kudos to my new friends and neighbors.
danielle smith’s sole purpose for running for office was to use her power to ram her personal ideologies down our throats.
well, the people have spoken and we think she has reached the end of the line….a mile or two ago.
smith is the laughing stock among all the other premiers around the table.
even mark carney (privately) has no respect for her.
she has befuddled the room with lofty words and gobbledekook, but now time has come to recognize what it really was: verbal diarrhea
Whether the work is demanding or not, if an enterprise cannot attract and hire local Canadian workers, the responsibility lies with the employer’s business model and hiring practices. There are plenty of people willing to do this work. If the physical labor is genuinely that severe, employers should invest in proper equipment—such as mechanical hoists for carcasses—rather than relying on manual labor to the point of injury. This is an operational failure by management, not a lack of willing workers.
🥱 people are pathetic. We have a whole planet to share and coexist on. Were fine.
Empty food banks, and full hospitals with no doctors, high housing costs and rampant crime and homeless and drug crisis . MAID program for white people free welfare for newcomers
If Canadians were paid a living wage you wouldn’t have labour shortages. Instead, we get temporary workers coming in, making the Canadian dollar and it’s worth double in their country. They send the money home and live like millionaires.