Federal government immigration changes reducing the number of temporary workers and students being allowed into the country and then making it difficult for them to stay threatens northwestern businesses, say local governments and those familiar with the situation.
Without a ready supply of people on work visas or on student visas, businesses have said they would be forced to close, said Mike Pucci, the City of Terrace's economic development officer.
"In Terrace, the hoteliers, every single one in Thornhill to Terrace, said they would close down on the sheer fact they would lose almost all, if not all, of their housekeeping staff," said Pucci.
The solution, he continued, is to create a special zone from Prince Rupert to Terrace, down to Kitimat and continuing to Smithers to ease immigration restrictions and to make it easier to stay for people already here on work permits and visas.
Even reducing the waiting period to renew visas and permits for people would help as they can't work while waiting, Pucci said.
The problem of having a ready workforce in the northwest began as baby boomers began to retire and the numbers of young people who traditionally worked in the service sector declined. Add in COVID when retirements accelerated and a shortage of labour grew not only in the northwest but across the country.
"We just didn't have the population to replace them so that's when the federal government said we need to bring in foreign labour. So during 2021-2024 they figured they'd open the doors and they projected about 1.2 million newcomers over three years," Pucci said. "What they got was one million a year, so they tripled the amount of people which created the housing crisis and the healthcare crisis and the infrastructure crisis."
That resulted in a political backlash leading the Liberal government to cut numbers, he continued.
The specific northwest challenge is also that its relatively small population combined with an upward trend of industrialization has taken up a larger portion of people to work then would be the case in areas with larger population centres, he added.
"There's more people working at Red Chris and Brucejack and LNG Canada," said Pucci of northwestern mines and the export now of liquefied natural gas from Kitimat. "It's created this deficiency of availability of workers on the front lines."
He said the northwest is more than justified in asking to be exempt from the immigration clampdown particularly when the federal government is banking on the region to increase its industrial value with more LNG projects, more mines and a growth in Prince Rupert port facilities.
Terrace mayor Sean Bujtas, who has been keeping a close eye on the situation, said that a reduction in newcomers resulting in businesses closing would start an economic and social downward spiral.
Bujtas just recently spent a day driving two doctors around the area in hopes of convincing them to move to Terrace.
"I took them to the coffee shop. I took them to Sherwood. I took them to places that are enjoyable. How interesting would the town be if I didn't have all those places to take them to," he said.
Sasa Loggin from Skeena Diversity, the Terrace-based social services agency which specializes in assisting foreign workers and students, said the impact of reductions extends beyond economic implications for businesses.
"They allowed two to three million people in and now they are kind of creating immigration policies that will push people out," she said.
"We see newcomers every day. It's people's lives. They've spent so much money, so much effort and they're now in Canada. They have established themselves. They've brought their families and now they're being told we might not renew your spouse's work permit. So can you imagine if a family of five was living on one income?"
The response of northwestern local governments has been to write the federal immigration minister advocating to treat the northwest differently. They've also begun a petition campaign.
