The Quebec government is looking at new French proficiency rules for temporary workers, but business leaders say the program should be left alone since they are already struggling to cope with a severe labour shortage.

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“They should look at it, but they should not implement it,” said François Vincent, vice-president for Quebec at the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses.

The province’s immigration system is already complex enough, he said, so adding new barriers to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program will only cause people to look to other provinces where they might stand a better and quicker chance of getting permanent residency.

Quebec can’t afford to lose access to more workers, business leaders said. Temporary workers are helping to fill the gap in the province’s labour shortage of nearly 202,095 positions. They’re a “safety valve,” a way to relieve pressure on a labour market fit to burst, Michel Leblanc, president of the Montreal Chamber of Commerce, said.

The number of temporary workers is high — 38,500 people in 2022, up from 23,300 in 2019 — but Leblanc said this is only because the immigration process is too slow.

“The system is not functioning as it should. It’s not efficient,” Leblanc said, adding that prospective citizens are trapped in a process that takes years, forcing business owners to rely on temporary workers.

The temporary foreign worker program is one of the key topics of debate in the Quebec provincial government’s ongoing public consultations to help devise its immigration strategy for the next three years. The government is also trying to decide whether the annual number of immigrants should be kept at 50,000 or gradually increase to 60,000 by 2027.

Vincent, Leblanc and officials in Montreal, where 60 per cent of immigrants opt to settle, are all in favour of increasing the number of immigrants to Quebec to 60,000. Denis Hamel, vice-president of ​​Workforce Development Policies at the Quebec Council of Employers, would ideally like to see the number rise to 80,000. From a labour standpoint, Quebec faces a shortfall of 18,000 immigrants per year, according to CFIB.

Quebecers could fill the vacancies, but that would mean many would have to retire later than planned, Hamel said. Quebecers currently retire at age 63.7, around a year younger than the national average of 64.6.

Some worry that an influx of immigrants will reduce the number of available housing units, but Leblanc said that should not be an issue.

“We need to look into our capacity to integrate them, to make sure that the public services are up to the task, (that) housing is available,” he said. The chamber “(does) not think that a 60,000 threshold would be destructive to the housing market. We think we can live with 60,000.”

Immigration, however, is not just a numbers game for the Quebec provincial government. There’s also a cultural dimension to consider.

“We are looking at what levers we have to ensure temporary immigration contributes to the protection of French,” Immigration Minister Christine Fréchette told reporters on Sep. 12. “Temporary immigration has an impact on the language spoken in Quebec, in the metropolis or elsewhere, so it’s an element of interest because we want to stop the decline of French.”

We are looking at what levers we have to ensure temporary immigration contributes to the protection of French

Christine Fréchette, Quebec immigration minister

Ewan Sauves, a spokesperson for Premier François Legault, said in an email that language is “one of the things we are looking at. We will make our announcements in due course.”

For now, Legault’s government is brainstorming on ways to increase the number of temporary immigrants who speak French, or who participate in a francization course, Maude Méthot Faniel, a spokesperson for Fréchette, said in an email. At present, roughly 47 per cent of people registered in francization courses are temporary immigrants.

“It is important to emphasize that the francization courses are free and that certain participants are entitled to allowances and even reimbursement of travel and child-care expenses,” Faniel said.

Legault’s government has made headlines in the past for its controversial measures to promote the French language, including Bill 96, which came into effect on June 1, 2022, and limits the use of English in certain settings.

Under Bill 96, new arrivals receive government services exclusively in French six months after their arrival, companies need to declare the proportion of their workforce that does not speak French and certain contracts must be in French first.

Legault told a Montreal business audience on Sept. 28, 2022, that “since we can’t stop the decline of French, I think that a lot of the Quebec nation wants to protect the French language, it’s a bit suicidal to increase (the number of immigrants).”

The government has since adopted a more balanced view. Fréchette has said the dilemma resembles a Y.

“One of the branches represents the economy and the workforce we need, while the other represents the French language and francization,” she said in a discussion paper. “These two branches must converge.”

Quebec business leaders don’t see the issue quite the same way. The government should be trying to make it easier for temporary workers to immigrate to Quebec, not harder, they said.

The French requirement need not be prohibitive, Hamel said. Economic immigrants currently need a French level 7 to be approved. This means the applicant can “(communicate) independently, when the situation is predictable or partially predictable, in informal conversations or presentations on concrete themes linked to current needs.”

Many temporary agricultural workers come to Quebec from Mexico or Guatemala and speak neither English nor French, Hamel said, so they are unlikely to be able to attain a level 7 before their arrival. A working knowledge of French, or a level 4 or 5, would be more realistic.

“Do they have to speak French when they arrive?” Hamel asked. “Can we not offer the employers the flexibility to offer French while (the immigrant) is working? Then maybe after two or three or four years, they will have the level of French sufficient to stay here.”

The preservation of French is important, Leblanc said, but it is secondary to the labour shortage issue.

Can we not offer the employers the flexibility to offer French while (the immigrant) is working?

Denis Hamel, vice-president, Workforce Development Policies, Quebec Council of Employers

As a result, he said the government should focus on speeding up the process to approve prospective permanent immigrants. Once that’s been addressed, the government can start reviewing French requirements for temporary workers.

“Don’t change anything (now),” he said. “Let’s have this discussion in three years.”

In the meantime, putting up new barriers for temporary foreign workers would be a “nightmare” for small-business owners, Vincent said, because they’re facing urgent needs. They wait an average of eight to 10 months for their temporary workers, or more than a year for permanent workers, Hamel said.

The labour shortage is a “major, major” challenge for businesses in Quebec, Vincent said, and is putting operations in danger in the short and medium term, causing business owners to pick up overtime hours to keep their companies afloat.

Labour shortages cost Quebec small businesses $10.7 billion in annual revenue, CFIB said in a 2022 report.

According to Leblanc, businesses are even struggling to keep their temporary workers. He said business owners have told him, “It doesn’t make sense. I have the perfect employee here. We hired them, they came, they integrated into the business, they integrated into the system, into society. Then, when they want to stay, it’s hurdles on hurdles on hurdles.”

Employers would like to keep these staff, Hamel said, since the constant turnover means employers spend most of their time training people.

“It’s a disappointment for both employees, and employers that after two years, they have to leave,” he said. “Many immigrants are disappointed that after the two years they don’t have a fast track.”

Indeed, as temporary workers languish in the years-long approval process to become a citizen, they start considering other provinces in Canada, Leblanc said.

“The rumour is that (the process) is quicker outside of Quebec” because of the uniqueness of Quebec’s immigration system, he said.

The rumour is that (the process) is quicker outside of Quebec

Michel Leblanc, president, Montreal Chamber of Commerce

Since immigration to Quebec is a shared responsibility between the federal and provincial government, prospective immigrants get the impression it would be faster to immigrate to a province such as Ontario, where immigration is solely under federal jurisdiction.

“Given Quebec’s distinctness as a society with language issues, it’s natural that it should be a distinctive (federated) system,” Leblanc said. “But then, let’s make it work.”

Instead of fixing the inefficiencies of the current immigration process, the provincial and federal governments do a lot of finger-pointing, he said.

“It’s not about whose fault it is,” he said, adding the most important thing is to streamline the process and figure out how to improve things.

Despite all the troubles, the immigrant debate has taken a positive turn in recent years, Leblanc said. Politicians are finally beginning to see that immigrants do not pose a danger to Quebec’s economic prosperity.

“For too long, politicians were not listening to the voices of those individuals who are not citizens and who are here temporarily,” he said.

Only once the labour shortage hit and businesses began to raise their voices, asking for more temporary workers, did politicians begin to pay attention and realize the province needs more immigrants.

“They’re part of the solution,” Leblanc said.

The question now is whether the province can bring them in quickly enough.

• Email: mcoulton@postmedia.com

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