By Matt Nemeth

Greenhouse owner cheers temporary foreign worker rule change

Dec 16, 2016 | 10:18 AM

REDCLIFF, AB — A local greenhouse owner is cheering after rule changes to the tmeporary foreign worker program were announced by the Federal government.

Ottawa has done away with the four-in, four-out rule, a controversial item surrounding temporary foreign workers. The rule limited the amount of time migrant workers could stay in the country to four years. After that, workers would have to leave Canada for four years before being able to come back to work.

Local greenhouses are among the top employers of temporary foreign workers, comprising around 10 per cent of the people who work at RedHat Co-operative in Redcliff. Chairman Albert Cramer says when it comes to the amount of people who work in the greenhouses that feed the co-op, that number jumps to between 50-60 per cent.

“The temporary foreign worker program is very important to our business,” said Cramer on Thursday. “I’m not too sure we could run it without temporary foreign workers.”

Cramer said was pleased when he heard the old rule limiting how long they could work and stay in Canada was removed.

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“The ‘four-in, four out’ rule is very impractical,” he says. “It’s not fair to the people that have to go home for four years to wait to come back, and it’s very unfair to us as growers. For us (the rule change) makes a huge difference, because we don’t have to be training (TFWs) all the time and we get to know the people that are working for us.”

The removal of the rule comes as the Liberal government aims to overhaul the current immigration program, a task made even more important following a recent report from the Conference Board of Canada. The report stated the agriculture industry’s labour shortage will double to over 100,000 unfilled positions by 2025.

A Canadian resident who came to Canada under the temporary foreign worker program is also applauding the changes.

Eliseo Esquivel came to Canada from Mexico in 2008. He now works for On-Side Restoration as an asbestos and water damage technician. Esquivel gained permanent residency in 2012, one year after the “four-in, four-out” rule was implemented by the previous government. He never had to deal with the looming deadline of having to be sent back after four years while going through the application process, and he’s glad others won’t from now on either.

“It’s going to be good for the people who are still here right now, they’re not going to be in a rush,” said Esquivel on Thursday.

 One aim of the federal government’s decision is to make life easier for people who want to go from being a temporary foreign worker to a permanent resident, like Esquivel. And Esquivel is very grateful he got that opportunity.

“It was amazing for me, it was my big dream.”