Without foreign workers, Gaspé fears closures

Gaspé’s business and politics is sounding the alarm in the face of federal restrictions on the hiring of temporary foreign workers, who risk bringing the economy of the Gaspé city.

Since September 24, 2024, the number of temporary low-salary temporary workers can no longer exceed 10 % of an employer’s workforce, and these workers’ contracts can no longer exceed one year.

In the past, employers could grant three -year employment contracts, which allowed them to stabilize their teams.

The Côte-de-Gaspé Chamber of Commerce maintains that these changes to the federal temporary foreign workers will particularly hurt the Gaspé peninsula.

It is worrying, when you know that the majority of temporary foreign workers in Gaspésie and in the Islands-de-la-Madeleine are in the MRC Côte-de-Gaspé.

She adds that since this measure affects temporary foreign workers who are under the median salary, which is $ 32 per hour in Quebec, several economic sectors will be affected, from retail to the manufacturing sector.

Low wages are not just minimum wages in this case, so it affects a greater variety of employees you might thinkexplains Marie-Claude Brière.

They are often employees in the field of catering, in accommodation, so a large part of the tourism industry, but also large factories like LM Wind Power, or smaller factories in the world of peachesshe says.

LM Wind Power actually employs many temporary foreign workers, mainly from the Philippines. And the company needs this workforce to contribute to the Hydro-Québec energy diversification plan which aims for the establishment of 10,000 megawatts of additional wind energy by 2035.

According to our information, the Gaspé factory is currently working with the Quebec government to try to find ways for its foreign workers.

However, it was impossible to obtain an interview with the management of LM Wind Power to find out exactly how many temporary foreign workers are affected by this measure of the Federal.

Apprehended closures

The mayor of Gaspé, Daniel Côté, fears the closure of certain businesses with the possible departure of foreign workers who will not be able to renew their work permit.

We would destroy all the economic fabric and it could go up to total or partial closures of industries, restaurants, fast food chains that mainly hire these workers.

Daniel Côté requests Ottawa to backtrack.

He also denounces that these new restrictions do not take into account the seasonal context of the region’s economy.

In particular, if a company is in a region where the annual unemployment rate exceeds 6 %, which is the case with the Gaspésie and the islands, it will now be impossible to hire temporary at low wages by benefiting from the federal program.

We cannot have the same type of economy as in a region like Montreal, so yes, that means that our annualized unemployment rate is always higher, so we are penalized. But the unemployment rate is not bad in summer, and this is where we need this mass of workers, and if we don’t have it, that means fewer services for tourists and our citizensdeplores the mayor.

With these restrictions, Ottawa wants more local employees to be hired, but it is not always possible in regions like the Gaspésie and the Islands-de-la-Madeleine.

Employees who are unemployed do not necessarily have the profile that is wanted in business, an older unemployed worker, for example, will not necessarily be able to go to work at night at the reception of a hotel.

We must take into account the seasonality of our industry which depends on these temporary foreign workers and that is part of the political claims that we haveinsists the director of the Chamber of Commerce.

Separate families?

Marie-Claude Brière also fears that families of immigrant workers will be divided by these new measures, if one of the spouses loses her contract, for example.

For LM Wind Power, there are families of employees who came to settle, so we can think of all the collateral impacts on the spouses and joints who came to settle and who work. We can already see the impact in some businesses, so it will be to be monitored at the social level because there are some who are already in precarious situationsshe concludes.

Consequently, these positions left vacant are also likely to slow down economic activity.

In Gaspésie and in the islands, the number of vacant posts increased from 905 to 1035 between the first quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025, according to data from the Government of Quebec.