A union representative for a beef processing plant south of Calgary is warning of worsening labour shortages if immigration policy proposals that narrowly passed in Alberta’s referendum are enacted.
“These are tough and high turnover jobs with few candidates lining up to fill them,” said Faduma Ahmed, with the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 401 at Cargill’s abattoir in High River, Alta.
With 98 per cent of polls reporting in Monday’s referendum, a slim majority of votes were cast in favour of limiting access to or charging a fee for provincially funded services based on immigration status. Premier Danielle Smith’s government had argued that the cost to provide health care and education to temporary Alberta residents amounts to $1 billion a year and that a surge in newcomers has strained affordability and services.
But critics have warned that the referendum’s outcome could make Alberta less attractive to newcomers at a time when jobs desperately need to be filled.
At the Cargill plant, temporary foreign workers, refugees, permanent residents and citizens from all over the globe work side by side and all pay taxes, said Ahmed. It’s back-breaking work, with staffers often having to hoist whole carcasses.
“When we sit down to eat, we rarely think about the intense and the gruelling labour it takes to get the food onto our tables, right on our plate,” she said, adding that workers have come to her concerned about their ability to pay for health care and school for their children.
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“They are foundational to keeping our economy moving, and they are navigating the exact same punishing affordability crisis as every other Albertan.”
Ahmed said the union will draw a “hard line” if the proposals become law.
“We will fight to ensure immigrant workers receive the same services they do today, up to and including making the employers pay at the bargaining table to fund the differences.”
Another sector that relies heavily on immigration is health care for seniors.
“Often we’ll find they’ll work in roles that maybe some Canadians may not be interested in,” said Leah Lechelt, executive director of the Christian Health Association of Alberta, which represents non-profits that employ 22,000 staff across the province.
She said some college programs for health-care aides have closed or reduced their enrolment simply because there haven’t been enough applications domestically.
The workforce hails from around the world, and are mostly health-care aides, but also cleaning and food-service staff, Lechelt said. They deal with vulnerable patients, so regulations largely limit those jobs to permanent residents and citizens.
“It’s really a very attractive role for somebody who is fairly new to Canada and sometimes is working on some English language proficiency skills.”
The association has established an apprenticeship program that enables those in entry-level jobs, like housekeeping, to train on-site to become health-care aides and pursue a better-paying career path.
“And then we can backfill those positions with other newcomers, maybe starting out in their journey in Canada.”
One of the referendum proposals asked whether Albertans would support the province taking more control of immigration from the federal government.
It was an idea the Business Council of Alberta has long advocated, said president Adam Legge.
“There’s a bit of a better on-the-ground intel perspective compared to a centralized decision in Ottawa,” he said.
“Oftentimes there are some skills and geographic mismatches between what Ottawa approves on an immigration basis and what is needed.”
For instance, he said there’s a huge demand for workers in the skilled trades, like heavy-duty mechanics, welders and electricians.
He said he heard from members generally that they don’t want to see anything deter people from choosing to live in Alberta.
Research by University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe commissioned by the Calgary Chamber of Commerce found immigrants paid an estimated $4.1 billion in Alberta personal income taxes in 2026.
It also found immigrants younger than 40 had a net fiscal contribution of almost $1 billion, after the cost of provincial family programs, workers’ compensation and social assistance are accounted for.
I have an intense hatred of everyone who voted to STAY
Didn’t take long for the losers to start their PR campaign
Its not as though there is a shortage of lazy journalists in Canada after all
Every time i say something it will be completely dumb , i cant help it! i am just a total idiot ! maybe because i love bum intercourse with other men, all i think about is the big brown eye winking at me and blowing me kisses ,my mind goes blank .sorry guys
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’
….the feds
…..the immigrants
….who will she blame next for pissing in her lunch?
So, here’s the deal, bring in SKILLED immigrants ONLY. And they need to speak one of the official languages. And, yes, first year is NOT free.
Get your azz in gear with immediate deportation of illegals and criminal migrants. Strip them of Canadian citizenship if you have to.
That is your job. So far, you’ve proved yourselves incapable of doing it.
Any wonder we’re fed up?
To all ALBERTAN’S who voted to leave, let the others KNOW HOW MUCH YOU DESPISE THEM, this is YOUR ALBERTA!
Close the border and end foreign aid now.
To be clear, there are thousands of immigrants in this country, many of them here fraudulent with fraudulent certifications paid for partially with our tax dollars stealing our jobs.
Do you work with one of them?
Liberals are committing a cultural genocide while attacking wage growth during periods of high inflation and they need to get out or go down.
Typical strawman bigotry of the left flying too close to the sun.
It’s the math retards.
So, they lied.
If one is having trouble filling jobs, then the remuneration provided is too little. If there is a high turnover rate, then extra vacation time or a 4 day week is needed.
Or more pay. Minimum wage does not cut it. Saying the immigrants do not stay long indicates they think they are being paid well, until they learn the cost of living is also way higher than back home.
As Wayne points out, there are lots of unemployed, but when the pay is less than EI from the last job, there is no incentive to apply.
I hope there are no immigrants left in Brooks as I would like to see the locals lined up for the jobs at the beef plant.
Hey Ben! Get it together. Danielle Smith asked for skilled immigrants. Not the ones that have taken the jobs of our teenagers and entry-level Canadians.
Soon to be out of a job, d Smith will be able to don the donair costume on full time basis.
Well here we go with the propagandised news of the day. Now it is time for the nay sayers to get up on thier soap boxes and tell us what is all wrong with the desion that Albertians have made. It is a democratic soulition that has decided what the majority of Albertians want. We live in a democratic country and no amount of propaganda is going to change that. So get over yourself and live like the rest of us. My father was an immagrant from Sweden Many, many years ago. He was a Corpral in the RCAF during ww11. He was a Canadian and proud to serve his new homeland as was I. We need rid of these Liberals so our country can survive and prosper once again.
The vast majority of immigrants are not being given government subsidies. Economic and family class immigrants make up most newcomers and generally arrive with the financial resources or family support needed to establish themselves.
Refugees are a different situation. They arrive fleeing war, persecution, or other dangerous circumstances. They make up a smaller proportion of overall immigration, and providing them with assistance is justified given their circumstances.
I strongly feel that economic and family class immigrants should be expected to contribute toward healthcare and other publicly funded social programs during their first year.
Refugees, however, should be exempt from these requirements because they often arrive in vulnerable circumstances and need time to rebuild their lives.
I am truley Canadian. I have served my country in the military and contruibuted to the Federal taxes all my working life. As have all of the elderly here in Canada. We butlt this country ,and to see what it is becoming under this Liberal government is shameful. When WW 11 ended I was 5 years old and I have watched each and every liberal government tear down every good thing that the previous government made improvements in. Yes I live in Alberta and damn proud of it. So happy the referendem turned out as it did. Premier Smith has more gonads than most men. Sure she had made a few mistakes but look at what she has achieved. Not just in the oilfield but for all of the province,when the other premiers where down on thier knees in Ottawa she was fighting for us here in Alberta, In the U.S.A. That is devotion.
Danielle Smith at one point had begged the federal government for more immigrants. She also put ads across Canada to ask people to move there. My point is one cannot reasonably blame the federal government for everything.
All in all of the immigrant issue, it’s the Liberals that held the door wide open to immigrants since Trudeau rein. I know of immigrants that are thoughtful and try to fit in with our society. Wouldn’t anyone want to immigrate to a better life in another country? The problem is the Trudeau and the Libs promised them milk and honey riches flowing in our streets. But I do agree that long time, life long Canadians deserve job first. Farmers are also struggling that’s why they need cheaper employees who work fast and hard when here.
And they can contribute for a year before collecting benefits. Stop being so butthurt by it.
Fine, contribute WITHOUT forcing all the rest of us to pay to financially support you all till YOU GET ON YOUR FEET once you get here.
@Shawn Fehr – I very much agree with your statement. These businesses probably pay way below minimum wage and should do better by Canadian citizens. Personally, I tend to NOT support businesses that don’t hire Canadian citizens, like Tim Hortons that’s now nicknamed Singh Hortons.
PS.My real name is Smith, no relation to Danielle.
If Ab has become less attractive then the business involved will have to hire at a better rate or better conditions to attract worker locally.
Sounds good to me as a lifetime tax paying worker. When I & my relatives can’t get medical care because of overcrowding,common sense needs to kick in.
FYI Impressed with the comments where a name is attached & think you should not publish all the anonymous comments at all….cowards
Close the border and end foreign aid now
Good. They got the clear message there is no more special treatment. You are equal and owe just as much as those born here if you want to participate.
I remember when a Butcher was an important part of the community. Now behemoths like Cargill has made meat cutting a low paid assembly line with working conditions and wages so horrible that they only can get desperate immigrants to work there.
I echo what some are saying here. I work in hospitals. They are overburdened by newcomers. A system will not survive when those using the system do not pay into it. The unskilled foreign students who use food banks and get everything covered do not pay taxes. Add in all of the new immigrants who immediately bring their elderly family members here, that have never contributed to canada or paid any income tax and you have a system that is collapsing in front of our eyes.
lee, heather, danielle smith in her self serving selfrightiousness made half a million albertans show the worls how stupid and selfish they are.
Cargill makes a massive profit every year if they passed some on to employees it would make it easier to find workers here already
The referendum was never about people that come here with skills, get a job and pay taxes, those will always be needed. It’s about the one’s the LPC brings here that have nothing to offer and expect a free ride.
Immigration isn’t bad:
I live in Fort McMurray. As horrible as this sounds, my (adult)son and I have a little contest we play at Walmart. You get a point for finding an English speaking employee with decent manners. Loser has to buy McDonald’s, and that isn’t much better. Ask any parent of a teenager or someone looking for an entry level job, those jobs no longer exist here.
My local elementary school has had to add a portable. Our teachers are pissed off because they did not go to university with the intention of teaching ESL. Our hospitals are not for “sick” kids that are just fine as they jump on the chairs and, I kid you not, order food.
Am I a racist? I didn’t use to sound like one. Now I am just angry beyond the words I can write here without sounding like one.
That being said, we have some wonderful newcomers here that have decided that assimilation is a good thing and that the perks of living here are a privilege not a right. Kudos to my new friends and neighbors.
danielle smith’s sole purpose for running for office was to use her power to ram her personal ideologies down our throats.
well, the people have spoken and we think she has reached the end of the line….a mile or two ago.
smith is the laughing stock among all the other premiers around the table.
even mark carney (privately) has no respect for her.
she has befuddled the room with lofty words and gobbledekook, but now time has come to recognize what it really was: verbal diarrhea
Whether the work is demanding or not, if an enterprise cannot attract and hire local Canadian workers, the responsibility lies with the employer’s business model and hiring practices. There are plenty of people willing to do this work. If the physical labor is genuinely that severe, employers should invest in proper equipment—such as mechanical hoists for carcasses—rather than relying on manual labor to the point of injury. This is an operational failure by management, not a lack of willing workers.
🥱 people are pathetic. We have a whole planet to share and coexist on. Were fine.
Empty food banks, and full hospitals with no doctors, high housing costs and rampant crime and homeless and drug crisis . MAID program for white people free welfare for newcomers
If Canadians were paid a living wage you wouldn’t have labour shortages. Instead, we get temporary workers coming in, making the Canadian dollar and it’s worth double in their country. They send the money home and live like millionaires.