Hoteliers applaud new foreign worker rules

The Hotel Association of Canada (HAC) has applauded Human Resources Minister Diane Finley’s announcement to speed up the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, which addresses Canada’s persistent labour shortages. “Canada’s hotel industry, which currently employs 284,000 people, is facing a nation-wide labour shortage crisis,”said HAC president Tony Pollard. “With that in mind we are particularly pleased that Ottawa will now respond to requests for skilled workers within 10 days instead of the 12-14 weeks it currently takes to get a Labour Market Opinion.”The new national regulations will initially only apply to high-skilled, rather than semi-skilled jobs, but is expected to be expanded to include other occupations. “This is definitely a step in the right direction,”said Pollard, adding, “It will make the system more efficient and effective for hoteliers in meeting their human resource needs.”(http://www.hotelassociation.ca)