Higgs may relax temporary foreign worker ban

Premier Blaine Higgs is considering lifting the ban on temporary foreign workers as efforts to fill vacant jobs with New Brunswickers are falling short.

The ban, announced in late April, rocked the province's agricultural and seafood-processing industries, which rely on the arrival of hundreds of migrant workers each year and are now facing a labour shortage.

"I said I wouldn't let them go without employees and I meant that. I won't," Higgs said during Wednesday's briefing on the COVID-19 pandemic.

"If we don't fill the roster in the next few days then there will be the decisions made to ensure we meet the needs."

The risk in permitting "more people to enter the province is simply too great," Higgs said on April 28 when declaring a ban on any new temporary foreign workers coming into the province. At that time, the province hadn't had a new case of COVID-19 in 10 days.

Coming up short

To fill the roughly 600 vacancies, Higgs worked with the federal government to allow workers already in Canada to switch jobs. The province also launched a program encouraging unemployed New Brunswick residents to take on those positions.

On Wednesday, the premier said the volume of applicants was underwhelming.

Higgs said about 220 New Brunswick workers have been brought in and another 100 are being interviewed.

"Given the magnitude of unemployment in the province... I would have expected it to be much higher," he said.

He later told CBC's As It Happens that fewer than 50 temporary foreign workers had been reassigned.

Higgs said the federal CERB program, which provides furloughed Canadian workers $500 a week for 16 weeks, is creating an incentive for people to stay home.

"We've had companies tell us that they can't get people to come back to work," he said. "You know, this has been great to get the help in order ... to help our economy get back up and running, but there has to be a connection with [the] ability to contribute."

Higgs, who during the briefing reiterated the importance of securing the food supply and what the affected sectors represent to the province's economy, suggested the ban could be altered to address the shortage of labour if New Brunswickers don't "step up" and answer his call.

"It's likely we're going to have to relax some of those rules, but we aren't in the height of the pandemic that we were a month ago or so," he said.

The premier also announced Wednesday that New Brunswick will enter the next phase of recovery the yellow phase on Friday. The province's recovery plan guide does not list any changes to the ban or border restrictions under the yellow phase, and the section on temporary foreign workers, as of Wednesday evening, still states the ban is in place with no end date.

Opposition MLAs favour change

The Opposition critic for agriculture, aquaculture and fisheries said lifting the ban or making exemptions has come too late.

"We suggested weeks ago the premier should reconsider his position on this matter. Unfortunately, this decision comes a bit late for the seafood processing plant owners," said Liberal MLA Isabelle Thriault, who represents Caraquet, in an emailed statement.

"He promised he would find people to fill positions in our plants and on our farms, and he has been unable to fulfill that promise. This has created a lot of difficulty for the fishing and agriculture sector."

Ban on temporary foreign workers in New Brunswick has some farmers devastated

4 years ago

Duration 4:50

After Premier Blaine Higgs banned temporary foreign workers to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in New Brunswick, farmers lost some of their best workers and are struggling to keep up.

Thriault said the province missed out on some of the 175 workers destined for the province on a flight from Mexico to Halifax the same day the ban was announced, saying "now most of those workers are employed in Nova Scotia."

On Wednesday, the Green Party called for an exemption to the ban for farms that can meet health and safety requirements, including a two-week isolation upon entry into the province.

Green Leader David Coon said farms are "particularly in dire straits" at the moment and other sectors, like seafood, could be phased in at a later date.

The exemption is part of several new supports for small business and the self-employed the party proposed Wednesday, including targeted grant programs, property tax forgiveness for the most-affected sectors and a plan to develop government procurement targets to expand the market for local producers.

"Our small businesses and our cities and towns are just being hammered," Coon said, explaining how some businesses are having difficulty reopening and dealing with staff and customers too nervous to return.