Nitin Bhatia came to Prince Rupert four years ago from India.
If you've been a patron of the restaurant at city's Crest Hotel, you have probably encountered his professionalism and cheerful disposition.
"I believe my profession is equally important than other professions," he said.
"We are the ones who bring food from the kitchen to your table, we make your occasion special and memorable, create memories for the family, support local business and communities."
Two years ago, he brought his wife over and they are currently expecting a baby. They were in the process of making a new, better life in their adopted country. They were even working toward buying a house.
But all of that is now up in the air because of the new immigration rules and the cumbersome nature of federal government bureaucracy. A big part of the problem is a disconnect between the government bureaus of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC).
IRCC issues work permits while ESDC is responsible for Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs), which employers need to justify their request to employ foreign temporary workers.
Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Taylor Bachrach said the two ministries do not work together and delays in LMIA processing create bottlenecks for work permits.
Bhatia was in the process of renewing both his work visa and LMIA. IRCC denied his work permit pending the LMIA. He is currently not working while the bills are piling up. It has caused personal anxiety and discord in his marriage. His wife is expecting with a high-risk pregnancy and is scheduled for surgery.
He fears he could be deported back to India.
"If I get an order tomorrow, now [they're] ready to deport, then what I do?" he asked.
"I can't take her; I can't leave her. And another thing, also, if I go back, I will not get the same job I left for this country, and I will not get the same wage also, so I'm back to zero."
COMMUNITY DIALOGUE
Stories like Bhatia's echoed throughout the conference room at Prince Rupert's Highliner Hotel March 4 as international students, temporary foreign workers, employers, community leaders and concerned citizens gathered for a community dialogue.
People are receiving stop work orders and are stressed. It is affecting their mental health, but they can't get services because their MSP has been cut off while they try to jump through the new hoops. Their children are also affected as they can't go to school until their parents' status is sorted out.
James Warburton, co-owner of the Highliner with his wife Corrine, said he couldn't think of anything more "un-Canadian" than the way these people, some of whom have been residents for years, are being treated.
But it's not just the workers themselves who are feeling the heat. Employers, some of whom rely on foreign workers for 30 to 80 per cent of their staffing needs, are facing the very real prospect of not being able to keep their doors open.
Ranjit Gill, manager of Safeway, made an emotional plea during the meeting, noting that 80 to 90 per cent of his staff of approximately 180 are international students and temporary foreign workers.
"Could you imagine walking into Safeway and you didn't see all of them?" he asked. "You'd be chasing me down."
He also noted he is starting to see attrition in the staff as people are denied visas or seek better futures somewhere else.
"Now it's very, very sad, and I feel for it, because they gotta do something for themselves, for their family, for their lives," he said.
"They gotta figure out a way... [to] stay in Canada, right? They gotta look after themselves. I would be too. So, you know, as a community, we gotta get together, we gotta be able to help all these people. Because when you come into Safeway and there's nobody to serve you, provide to you, you got no place to feed your family, no place to go, it's going to be tough."
He recalled the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Guess who came to our rescue," he said.
"It was the foreign workers, the international students. Thankfully. We considered them heroes at that time. Yes, we did, and now what we're telling them [is] we don't need them anymore, right?"
MOVING THE GOALPOSTS
The Highliner event was hosted by Bachrach and co-organized by Community Futures Northwest with facilitators from Prince Rupert's Hecate Strait Employment Development Society and Terrace's Skeena Diversity Society.
So many people turned up (more than 100) that the Highliner staff had to open up the other side of the conference hall to accommodate the crowd.
"The turnout really underlines how important an issue this is to Prince Rupert," Bachrach said. "It's a huge one."
After opening remarks from Bachrach, Saša Loggin, executive director of the Skeena Diversity Society, gave a brief overview of the changes that were announced in November 2024 and came into effect Jan. 1.
In a nutshell:
- Canadian permanent residency targets have been reduced from 485,000 last year to 395,000 this year, 380,000 in 2026 and 365,000 in 2027.
- Both spousal work permit eligibility and post-graduate work permit eligibility have been tightened.
- International student study permits have been capped with a 10 per cent reduction in 2025 from 2024.
- For employers hiring foreign temporary workers under the low-wage stream, the quota is capped at 10 per cent.
- The starting wage for temporary workers in the high-wage stream has been increased by 20 per cent to $34.62 per hour.
- A goal has been set to reduce the number of temporary residents in the country from 6.5 per cent currently, to five per cent by the end of 2026.
For workers such as Bhatia, after years of working toward the goal of permanent residency, it feels like the goalposts have been unfairly moved at the last minute.
Bachrach said it is a classic example of scapegoating.
"I think the government was under political pressure by people who were using newcomers as a scapegoat for other challenges Canada is facing," he said.
"It's unfortunate, because policy decisions like that, that affect people's lives and affect communities, should be made based on the facts on the ground and based on the long-term best interest of both parties. And instead, we see a politicized issue being mismanaged, and I think that's really sad."
DISCUSSION GROUPS
Following the overview, the attendees broke out into six groups of approximately 12 to 20 people each to consider three questions:
1. How have recent immigration changes affected you?
2. How are these immigration changes impacting the local economy, businesses and job opportunities in the community?
3. What can we do to affect change together?
Several common themes emerged from the discussions.
In terms of individual and community impacts, every group had stories about disrupted lives and the potential threat to the Prince Rupert economy.
Workers have started receiving stop work orders. In the meantime, they still have to pay rent, buy food and access services such as healthcare and education, which they are no longer eligible for pending processing of LMIAs, which are backlogged.
Many businesses, particularly in the tourism sector, rely heavily on foreign workers. They worry they will not be able to serve the influx of tourists from the ships when cruise season starts in May.
They also noted that with $2.5 to $3 billion worth of projects ongoing or planned between the City of Prince Rupert and the Port, that the potential disruption of the service sector due to lack of workers could be devastating for the local economy,
The main impetus of the dialogue, though, was coming up with solutions Bachrach could take back to IRCC Minister Marc Miller in Ottawa.
Several emerged:
- Coordinate LMIA and work permit processing.
- Take local conditions into consideration in the policy-making process.
- Grandfather temporary workers and international students and their spouses who are already in the country.
- Enlist traditional media and social media to espouse the value of these immigrants to local economies and communities and counter scapegoating.
- Have Prince Rupert reclassified as a rural area.
- Develop fast-track to permanent residency programs for workers willing to come to and stay in rural areas.
- Collaborate with other rural areas in northwest B.C. and other parts of the country to lobby for compassion and change.
Bachrach said his office would be preparing a report from this session, one in Terrace the previous evening (March 3) and another in Smithers planned for March 11 and promised he would do everything in his power to bring the message to Ottawa.
"For those of us who are Canadian citizens, we have more security, and so we have a responsibility to speak out on your behalf and on behalf of our communities, and we're going to work together to find a way to very effectively convey that message to the government," he said.
