Twenty-three Quebec companies filed a prosecution against the federal government, on May 26, in order to be offset for the losses generated by the modifications made to the program of temporary foreign workers (TET). Two of the companies are companies in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Tremcar and Soleno.
At the time of filing the pursuit at the end of May, companies thus claimed $ 226 million in compensation from Ottawa. “The amounts are increasing every week,” said the lawyer representing businesses, Me Frédéric Bérard, attached to the phone by the newspaper.
This compensation is claimed in Ottawa to compensate not only the investments required to initiate this workforce now abolished, but also to compensate for the losses of income expected for the 1920s and 2026 by these companies.
In addition, around six temporary foreign workers (TET) filed a complaint on their behalf against the state. According to information obtained by French Canadanone of them would work in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.
TET program
As a reminder, the modifications made in September 2024 to the TET program now force employers to hire only 10 % or less from their workforce through the low salary pane of the program.
In addition, the work permits, previously two years, have a temporality of one year, which complicates integration and adaptation procedures within the company in addition to forcing companies to separate from already well -trained and integrated elements.
Tremcar
The manufacturer of Tremcar trailers and tanker trucks, which produces for the whole of North America, is one of Quebec companies in this pursuit. Out of 400 employees, the Johannaise company counted 41 TET until this year.
In 2025, Tremcar lost three of his TETs and expected to lose 22 next year. The difficulty of recruiting Quebecers would always be the same, according to Mélanie Dufresne, vice-president of market for Tremcar.
“The skilled workforce is difficult to find,” said Mr.me Dufresne. “We are currently missing about twenty welders,” she said.
Holding its own factory training school, the Tremcar company has a 70 % success rate for the 2025 cohort.
Granby factory
The lack of labor is even more harmful for Tremcar on the eve of the opening of its new factory in Granby, on August 11. Representing an investment of $ 32 million, this state -of -the -art manufacture of technology must eventually generate sixty jobs.
For the time being, a transfer of employees is planned from the Saint-Césaire factory. Once the new factory is running, Tremcar will be hired.
“If I am not able to find employees, how will I make my new factory profitable?” Save Mélanie Dufresne in an interview with the newspaper. “My costs fixed to me, they do not go down. The factory will be very expensive. And having known that, we would probably have taken this money to invest it in the United States, ”comments Mme Dufresne.
No consultation
The companies also deplore a total absence of consultation of the environment upstream of the modifications made to the TET program.
Recall that four Johannaises companies had formed a common front last December in order to sound the alarm with Ottawa in the face of this situation.
Companies would have led to exchanges with various government parties during the year 2025. According to Mélanie Dufresne, the requests for regional particularities in this process would have been successful. “We had no listening,” she says.
When writing these lines, French Canada could not obtain a testimony from the soleo company that the newspaper contacted for an interview request.