WESTERN PRODUCER — Labour shortages at Canadian meat-packing plants have been a problem for years.
But in 2021, the number of job vacancies became ridiculous.
Last year and into 2022, many packers closed production lines and stopped making certain meat products because they lacked employees.
“In early 2021… we were at over 4,500 (vacancies). By fall we were at over 10,000 empty butcher stations,” said Marie-France MacKinnon of the Canadian Meat Council.
“Those are full-time positions that are unfilled. It’s been very dire.”
The labour shortage extends beyond meat processing. Some companies in the food and beverage manufacturing sector, which employs about 300,000 people, have been dealing with job vacancy rates of 20 percent or higher.
Food processors have repeatedly asked the federal government to help with the labour crisis.
In early April it responded.
Carla Qualtrough, minister of employment and workforce development, announced changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program. One change is a new limit on the number of foreign workers at food-manufacturing plants.
Previously, the workforce at most plants was capped at 10 percent TFWs. A meat packer with 800 employees could employ 80 foreign workers.
For the next year, starting April 30, companies in seven sectors (including food manufacturing) will be allowed to hire up to 30 percent of their workforce through the TFW program.
“All other employers will be allowed to hire up to 20 percent of their workforce through the TFW program for low-wage positions until further notice,” the feds said in a release.
That will make a huge difference and will help “stabilize the food supply chain,” the meat council and other groups said in a release.
The federal government modified the TFW program, partly because of a robust lobby from meat packers and food processors. This winter, a coalition of 11 associations, including the Baking Association of Canada and Food and Beverage Canada, joined forces to speak with a unified voice.
In January and February, they held 60 to 70 meetings with government officials, including MPs and ministers, MacKinnon said.
The coalition thanked Qualtrough for improving the TFW program and praised agriculture minister Marie Claude Bibeau for her “significant support for the sector.”
Meat packers and food processors say they need to hire more foreign workers because it’s extremely difficult to recruit and retain Canadians.
Some lay the blame on CERB, the $500 a week government benefit that millions of Canadians collected during the pandemic. Others say young people are no longer motivated to work.
“They just don’t want to work. They don’t have to work,” Perry Deering of Deerview Meats in Irvine, Alta., told The Western Producer last year.
“There is no work ethic. There is no commitment.”
The counter argument is that wages at food processing plants are too low. If employers raised hourly wages, more young Canadians would apply for vacant jobs.
That may be true, but Canadian food processors compete against companies from around the globe. Starting employees at $25 per hour isn’t financially feasible for many companies.
Besides increasing the 10 percent cap, the federal government made other changes to the TFW program. Farmers that employ foreign workers and agri-food companies have long complained about the Labour Market Impact Assessment.
Before hiring a foreign worker, beekeepers, hog farmers, meat processors and any other employer must demonstrate that they cannot find a Canadian to do the job. That involves posting job ads and filing paperwork to the federal government. But, in many cases, it took months for the government to process a LMIA application.
“If you’re going to (hire) one person from the Philippines, it can take six to eight months,” said Henrik Thomsen, a hog farmer from Roblin, Man. “And how can you plan your labour force six to eight months down the road? It’s really, really hard to manage.”
The feds have promised to shorten the wait time.
“In order to ensure that employers across the country can hire TFWs in a timely manner, Service Canada recently implemented a series of measures to increase capacity and expedite the processing of LMIA applications,” the government said. “This includes increasing staffing resources in all regions, including Quebec.”
