MONTREAL -- The new threshold that allows Quebec businesses in designated sectors to employ up to 20 per cent of temporary foreign workers, rather than 10 per cent, comes into effect Monday.
Minister of Labour and Employment Jean Boulet is pleased with this change and points out that it corresponds to a repeated request by employers in these sectors, for whom the 10 per cent limit was an obstacle.
The Quebec minister said he hoped the federal government would improve and speed up its processing of temporary foreign workers.
Recently, the chicken processing company Exceldor announced that it had to euthanize thousands of chickens because of a lack of foreign workers in its facilities. Both the company and the union representing workers, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW, affiliated with the FTQ), denounced the lengthening of the time it took the federal government to process the files.
Boulet hopes that the temporary foreign worker program will be repatriated to Quebec. At present, it is a joint operation with the federal government.
-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Jan. 10, 2022.
