23 Quebec business owners launch $300 million lawsuit over temporary foreign worker permits

Quebec business owners have launched a $300 million lawsuit against the federal government over its plan to reduce the number of foreign workers.

A group of Quebec business owners have launched a $300 million lawsuit against the federal government this month, arguing they’re facing bankruptcy if Ottawa goes ahead with its plan to reduce the number of foreign workers coming into Canada.

The heads of the 23 businesses, which make everything from steel products to winter jackets and airplane parts, say temporary foreign workers are essential to stay afloat.

With Ottawa is pushing to reduce the number of permits it issues, employers are upset.

“The federal government from 2021 to 2024 has said to those enterprises, ‘You can count on foreign workers as much as you like,’” said the lawyer representing the business owners, Frédéric Bérard. “And all of a sudden, they decided to flip the table and say, ‘Well, forget about that, we’re changing the rules.’”

He said the business owners want to cover their losses.

“The federal government obviously is killing some part, some very important vital parts of our economy,” said Berard.

The changes were put in place after growing pressure from Quebec and some conservative organizations who argue Canada can’t sustain such massive temporary immigration.

“We we’ve seen an increase of 300,000 temporary immigrants, 300,000 additional people. So of course it has it has a major impact on services,” Quebec Premier François Legault said back in October.

But business groups in the province say restricting the number of temporary workers means they can’t fill vacant positions, which affects their output and may even force some of them out of business.

“These companies either have to slow down production refills, contracts and in certain cases they wait,” said Véronique Proulx of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce.

She added some shifts might get cut “because we can’t find the workers that we need.”

The federal government did not respond to a request for comment at time of publication.

But the businesses say it’s an urgent matter because they lose money every month and need financial stability if they don’t have workers to do the job.