The Government of Quebec has announced nearly $55 million in funding to help in the recruitment and integration of foreign workers on a temporary basis.
The government’s labor minister, Jean Boulet, said $20.9 million of the total would help businesses in the province of Quebec towards international recruitment of much-needed labor.
Quebec finds itself facing its highest labor shortage in the past 40 years and it currently has one of the highest job vacancy rates among all of Canada’s provinces.
To meet their labor needs, an increasing number of employers have been turning to temporary foreign workers since the start of the year 2018. In 2018, temporary work permits issued for the province of Quebec increased by 36 percent over from 2017.
A report by CBC News shows that this trend has rapidly increased since the election held in October 2018. This election saw the province’s new Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) government introduce a temporary 20 percent reduction in the number of immigrants admitted to Quebec this year.
Two of the incentives included subsidies for recruitment and catering for the immigrant’s moving expenses. These initiatives were announced on August 26 and were commitments by the CAQ to partially subsidize the international recruitment efforts by the region’s businesses. The latter of the two initiatives covered up to $1,000 in relocation expenses for temporary foreign workers, making it easier for them to move to Quebec.
