Thank you.
My name is Dimitri Fraeys and I am the vice-president of innovation and economic affairs at the Conseil de la transformation alimentaire du Québec, the CTAQ. I am accompanied by my colleague, Ms. Isabelle Leblond, who is a corporate director at Olymel.
The CTAQ is the main business association in the food and beverage processing sector in Quebec. The CTAQ is a federation of 14 sectoral associations in Quebec. In Quebec and in Canada, the food and beverage processing industry is the largest manufacturing employer, with 75,000 jobs in Quebec and 300,000 jobs in Canada.
The food and beverage industry is facing a major labour shortage crisis. Vacancies are on the rise, ranging from 20 to 40% depending on the plant. Food and beverage manufacturing was already experiencing labour problems prior to the COVID‑19 pandemic, but the pressure of the pandemic has amplified the situation, and the sector now needs an urgent solution.
Despite aggressive recruitment initiatives to fill vacancies, it has been impossible to find enough Canadians to fill jobs in food and beverage manufacturing. Recruiting staff is extremely difficult. While other sectors are also facing labour problems, we are now all competing for the same workers, who are becoming increasingly scarce.
The inability to maintain a stable workforce impacts on food security, economic recovery and animal welfare, and it undermines the sector's ability to sustain a national agriculture and food system. Without enough workers, companies are already abandoning certain product lines, halting production and imposing overtime, leading to the exhaustion of a workforce already under additional strain from the pandemic. In some cases, companies simply postpone expansion plans, and it is not uncommon for family members to be involved in plant operations to keep production going.
While food and beverage processing is only one of many sectors experiencing labour shortages, the inability to meet current needs will impact national food security and affordability, as well as the ability of Canadians to easily access the food they want. An increase in the cost of food will be an additional challenge due to inflation, which has already increased the cost of living.
At a time of declining global food supply, it is imperative that Canada increase food production and processing so that it can share its foodstuffs with countries that are not so fortunate. The temporary foreign worker program helps fill this labour gap. This program is a lifeline for companies that are stretched to the limit.
This program should become permanent, since demographic curves indicate that the labour shortage will continue until at least 2030. We're concerned with processing times. It takes between eight and 10 months from the filing of the labour market impact studies, the LMIAs, to the arrival of the temporary foreign workers. It takes four to five months to analyze the LMIAs and three to six months to obtain visas.
For Quebec, processing times are even longer, up to one year, as companies must recruit workers before filing LMIAs. Agricultural operations are exempt from visas because their workers come from Mexico or Guatemala. However, Quebec-based processing companies recruit employees from French-speaking regions, such as North Africa and Madagascar, which do not have this exemption, and that lengthens processing times.
We propose a few solutions to speed up the process.
First, it should be possible to file LMIAs per factory, which would allow a large number of workers to be grouped on the same document. Fewer LMIAs mean less work for analysts and a faster analysis process.
Secondly, companies should be allowed to use the assessment time of these LMIAs to recruit employees. This is a problem that particularly affects Quebec.
Third, agreements should be made with French-speaking countries to expedite visas. This is already the case for Mexico and Guatemala for access to farms.
Fourth, a trusted employer category should be created for companies that have been filing LMIAs regularly for five years and renewing them every year. What we are proposing is the equivalent of the Nexus program or a fast-tracking of the immigration process. That way, companies will no longer have to wait for the famous analysis process that can take four to six months.
Fifth, the maximum number of foreign workers should be increased to 30%, particularly in Quebec, which already has a special agreement at 20%.
We thank you for this opportunity to speak to you, and we are ready to answer your questions.