TIABC Voice of Tourism Newsletter – August 22, 2025

CEO Message

While cycling aimlessly in Regina last month, I happened upon a beautiful park where dozens of folks were enjoying recreational activities. I learned that the residents of this new neighbourhood were largely African immigrants who had not only settled in this area, but all over Saskatchewan’s capital city.

Last year, 24,000+ newcomers moved to Regina, boosting the population to just under 300,000. Consequently, the city enjoys a strong labour market with steady employment growth and a declining unemployment rate. But to be fair, many employers still struggle to find workers with the right skills.

Sound familiar? It should since several BC communities have experienced significant growth in recent years yet recruiting employees remains a challenge for one reason or another.

Tourism HR Canada maintains that with an aging population, declining birth rates, and a shrinking domestic labour pool, immigration is paramount to filling job vacancies in the tourism sector. From what I observed, Regina is proof of that but don’t take my word for it. Reports show that immigration currently accounts for 100% of Canada’s labour force growth.

At the same time, the Government of Canada has slowed the torrid pace of immigration recently to restore balance to the system, which has allowed decision-makers time to figure out the impact of newcomers on things like social programs and housing. However, it has also added to the ongoing labour woes for many tourism operators across the country including here in British Columbia.

The issue is further compounded by national labour policy that favours high-skilled economic immigrants versus lower-skilled workers, yet the reality is we need both. As you know, for years our industry has been forced to rely on the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFP) program to fill the (5% of) jobs that Canadians and permanent residents aren’t applying for…which in many cases has proven to be an exercise in futility.

While there are many more complexities to this topic than I have room to share, there is reason to be optimistic that some of the issues related to the labour file will be addressed via lobbying by multiple business sectors that support recommendations contained in a new white paper on Reimagining Immigration: The Canadian International Workforce Program (CIWP), which advocates for a revised immigration program that welcomes those with limited skills.

At a briefing this week by the Commissioner of Employers, we learned that like the TFW program, CIWP (with two sub-streams – temporary and year-round immigration) aims to connect foreign labour supply to Canada’s labour market demand; enable employers who use the program to do so as a last resort; complement Canadians workers in workplaces with foreign workers; and tie a foreign worker to a job.

If CIWP is executed well, foreign workers will find a pathway to permanent residency and be protected while employers are provided certainty of employees from a variety of skills levels. Among the recommendations, the white paper suggests extending the Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) maximum work duration to five years, implement measures to enable employers to retain their current foreign workers, strengthen worker protections, reinstate the limit on the number of foreign workers to 20% of full-time, year-round staff, among other ideas.

Although CIWP is not the perfect solution, the current system is broken so anything that endeavours to fix the suite of problems should be considered. In the meantime, our partners at go2HR provided some excellent insights on the white paper noting, among other observations, that now may not be the best time to advocate for increased immigration considering an unsteady economic climate caused by tariffs, inflation, job losses, various crises, and additional factors. Once we receive further feedback from TIABC’s Policy Committee and other experts on the labour file, we’ll determine whether to champion this initiative as part of lobbying efforts at the federal level. Stay tuned.

After frequent trips to visit family, I’ve come to recognize that Regina is much more than its stereotypical image of ardent Riders’ fans and farmers in pick-up trucks and John Deere ball caps. Given the volume of immigrants that have moved there in recent years, it’s become a much more cosmopolitan city that continues to evolve into a desirable place to live, work and play. Sound familiar? It should since several BC communities have experienced a similar pattern over the last decade.

Walt Judas

CEO, TIABC