Temporary foreign workers face uncertain future amid wildfires in Jasper
Government officials say options are available for people displaced by the fires
Last September, Ramandeep Singh and his wife moved to Jasper, Alta., where he had secured a job as a sous chef at Evil Dave's Grill.
The 28-year-old's move from Surrey, B.C., was made possible by Alberta's Rural Renewal Stream program, an immigration initiative that offers newcomers a chance to live, work and settle in the province's rural communities. For Singh, this was a path to permanent residency and, eventually, Canadian citizenship.
"I thought everything would fall in place," he told CBC.
But after joining the 25,000 residents and visitors who evacuated the park Monday night, he's worried his hopes for a secure future are in jeopardy.
Work permit expiring soon
Singh first moved to Canada in 2018 as a student at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, B.C. After getting a post-graduate diploma in tourism in 2021, he applied for an open work permit, then went to Surrey, B.C., to work at a Cactus Club restaurant.
In March, he applied for the Alberta Advantage Immigration Program, which has four streams: Tourism and Hospitality, Alberta Opportunity, Alberta Express Entry and Rural Renewal.
Now, with his work permit expiring on Sept. 9, he said he doesn't know what will become of his application or his status in the country.
"I don't know what the outcome will be since I'm no longer working right now and I don't know how long will it take for me to get back to work or for the community to get back," he said.
Singh said he was expecting an update on his application in August.
Options for workers affected by wildfire
According to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), temporary workers who cannot attend their authorized workplace due to wildfires can apply for an extension.
They can also apply to transition from an employer-specific work permit to an open work permit, IRCC spokesperson Sofica Lukianenko said Friday in a email.
She added that temporary workers may be eligible for employment insurance or to apply to change employers while their workplace is closed.
Meanwhile, the provincial government said through its immigration program it is helping applicants whose employment is affected by wildfire evacuations.
"Applications based on a job offer or residence in an Alberta community that has been evacuated will be held up to a maximum of one year from any Alberta community's evacuation date," Garrett Koehler, press secretary for Alberta's Immigration and Multiculturalism ministry, said in an email.
He noted that applicants affected by a wildfire have one year to prove they meet the immigration program's criteria. "If unemployed due to the effects of the wildfire on businesses, this includes finding a new job in an eligible occupation with an Alberta employer," he said.
Wondering about documents
Yulianna Ferenchukk, 26, who worked with Singh at the grill, is a foreign worker who came here from Ukraine in July 2022. She arrived under the federal Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel program, an expedited process for Ukrainians fleeing war to live and work in Canada for up to three years.
She said she is heartbroken about going through a second evacuation in her life. "It feels like you've become a double orphan," she told CBC on Friday.
She is worried about her permanent resident status and said she was expecting documents from IRCC regarding her work permit.
She fears the documents may have reached Jasper and got lost in the fires.
"I don't know what to do," she said. "I will have to restore them."
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