Despite a happy ending for one beloved Victoria eatery, leaders in the B.C. restaurant industry are raising concerns regarding a recent piece of federal legislation that affects immigrant workers.

Starting on Sept. 26, sweeping changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program were enacted by the federal government, which included no more than 10 per cent of an employer's total workforce being allowed through the low-wage stream of the TFW Program, and several changes to the Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIA) application process.

Janet Reynolds, general manager of Beacon Drive In in  Victoria, says the new legislation left the visas of some of her employees, including the assistant manager, in suspension.

She explained that before her employees get a work permit, they need an LMIA, which both lasted two years before expiry, though it was brought down to one year as a result of the September legislation. Her employees re-applied for their permits about three months before the expiration date, which is standard for the process.

"Usually if the LMIA is going to take a little bit longer, [Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada] will extend their work permit temporarily until the LMIA comes through. But because they're taking so long with the LMIAs, the (IRCC) is pulling all their work permits," Reynolds told Victoria News in a Dec. 13 phone interview.

Two of her cooks had already left the country to go back to Indonesia because without a work permit, they also wouldn't be able to get their permanent resident status.

Ian Tostenson, CEO of the BC Restaurant and Foodservices Association, says immigration issues are not new to the industry, but the recent legislation could prove to be detrimental to local restaurants.

He said the industry has leaned on immigrant workers since before the COVID-19 pandemic as a result of people aging out of the workforce, or just leaving the industry.

"In our particular case in an industry that doesn't have the skilled workers that it needs, it's really put us in a bad situation," said Tostenson. "I would say in six to eight months, we're in pre-crisis mode right now, we're going to be in a full crisis because as the economy strengthens, as interest rates come down, and as our industry starts to become stronger economically, we're going to need cooks and chefs."

The restaurant industry in B.C. is short about 20,000 workers, he says, and as a result of the new legislation, employers must now pay 20 per cent above median wage for foreign workers, which comes to about $36 per hour, a rate that is sometimes impossible to pay kitchen staff. 

"A lot of the workers that are here right now, they know that their work permits will not be extended, so a lot of people have been leaving. They're leaving Canada and it's really unfortunate," he said. 

As a result of lobbying the office of Cowichan-Malahat-Langford MP Alistair MacGregor, Reynolds said on Monday, Dec. 16, that her employees' LMIA applications have been successfully fast-tracked, which she says saves them from months of stress from hiring and training new employees, though she did lose one employee, who left to another province that would offer permanent residency faster.

"There's so many more people in this predicament," says Reynolds. "It's freaking crazy."

Tostenson says though the future of the industry looks bleak, the association and other organizations are working to develop a solution.

The federal government has an express-entry program to accept foreign workers from French-speaking countries, Tostenson explained, which is a stream of skilled workers the association is looking at.

"We have to pursue other avenues of immigration, and I think we'll be able to do that, just take this into our own hands," he said.