Backlog of applications for foreign workers leaves N.S. restaurants with 8,000 jobs to fill

The owners of Cha Baa Thai, a prominent Halifax Thai restaurant chain, recently completed a three-year project to open their fifth location in Halifax, but they can't open its doors because they have no one to work inside. 

Kim Dao and her husband Wen Prathumma own four Cha Baa Thai restaurants in Halifax, Bedford and Dartmouth. All four locations have reduced hours.  

Not only are they struggling to hire local workers, a significant problem for restaurants during the pandemic, but also foreign workers. And they're not the only ones. 

According to Gordon Stewart, the executive director of the Restaurant Association of Nova Scotia, restaurants are facing lengthy delays in the processing of foreign worker applicants. 

"It's expensive to keep the place empty. Very expensive, and we don't know how long we can handle these budgets," said Dao.

Stewart says approximately 30 per cent of restaurants in Nova Scotia are trying to recruit foreign workers to fill a nearly 8,000-worker shortage in the sector.

"If you put an application in July, it's probably just getting processed now in October. So that's very challenging because when you need a worker, you need them now, you don't need them six months or eight months or 10 months away," said Stewart. 

He said the impact of labour shortages is evident in many restaurants as they reduce hours, close one or two days a week and limit items on their menu. 

And while hiring foreign workers isn't the easiest answer, it's one way to fill the gap. He said the province's restaurant industry employed about 35,000 people year-round before the pandemic. Now they have approximately 27,000 workers.

Restaurant workers not an immigration priority 

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) sets priorities for temporary foreign worker applications based on occupations. Since early in the pandemic, they've prioritized workers in agriculture and health care, says Stuart Isherwood, media relations adviser at IRCC.

Isherwood says that's where labour is most urgently needed. Chefs and servers don't make the priority list. 

Last year, the federal government introduced $85 million in funding to address application backlogs for work permits, study permits and permanent resident card renewals.

Isherwood says the standard time for visas submitted overseas is 60 days and work permit extension applications submitted in Canada is 120 days. However, that timeline is rarely met. 

"Due to the department's backlog of applications and despite our efforts, we know that many applicants are experiencing considerable wait times for the processing of their applications. We continue to do everything we can to reduce processing times," said Isherwood. 

IRCC provides an estimate of processing time for applications from around the world on its website.

Halifax MP Andy Fillmore has raised the issue to the IRCC and is working to improve processing times, according to his assistant Breton Cousins. 

Long wait only to learn the application is rejected

Dao says the Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) — a document that Canadian employers must complete to show the government they need to employ a foreign worker after being unable to hire a Canadian — is time-consuming and expensive.

Employers recruiting foreign workers must advertise jobs on the Government of Canada's Job Bank. 

Pratima Devichand, an immigration consultant, says a few years ago, the Job Bank would list language requirements as English, French, bilingual and other. Now it's either English, French or bilingual.

Because of that, she says overseas visa officers often refuse permits to workers who are not fluent English or French speakers. 

"I see this problem of trying to bring workers across industries. I have clients who are in health care, construction, in trucking, all trying to bring people so they can keep their businesses going and these roadblocks, very similar roadblocks, occur across the board," says Devichand.

With Nova Scotia's aging population, she says, bringing immigrants to support the economy is increasingly important. 

Dao says during the pandemic, she's filed 10 LMIA applications that cost about $1,000 each, but only one Thai worker received a permit to work with her. A chef position at Cha Baa Thai pays $22 per hour.

She said many of the workers she's trying to bring here worked in her restaurants in the past, but were sent home when former prime minister Stephen Harper implemented a four-year limit on foreign workers in 2015. 

"Canada wants to increase immigrants, but Service Canada's mandate is [to hire] unemployed and underemployed Canadians, not immigrants," says Devichand.