Quebec launched a pilot project in May 2023 to find employment in the tourism industry for 3,000 asylum seekers. A year after the initiative began, only around fifty people have been hired.
The plan, accompanied by a budget of 10 million dollars, aims to hire 1,000 people each year for three years. The pilot project was launched by Quebec in the spring, but it was not until the fall before everything took off, which partly explains the provisional figure of 50, well below the thousand hires hoped for this first year. .
“It doesn’t correspond to the expectations we had given ourselves. It took a long time to set up the project,” admits Xavier Gret, the general director of the Quebec Council of Human Resources in Tourism (CQRHT), which oversees the pilot project.
“A pilot project means trial and error. We’ve changed four times [les façons de faire]. It requires an important exercise to integrate these people. »
However, there is no shortage of volunteers. Around 3,200 asylum seekers have registered on the CQRHT platform, 68% of whom are French-speaking, according to the organization’s figures. Compulsory training lasting several months slows down employment, explains Xavier Gret. “We follow them. It’s quite heavy. I’d rather have 50 and have it go well. […] We don’t want to experience the horror stories of other places on integration issues. »
Criteria were also added “as we went along” to ensure employee retention. Several asylum seekers ended up throwing in the towel because they did not want to work evenings or weekends or have to leave Montreal. “At the beginning, we had jobs in Brossard for people in Montreal, but they did not want to go to Brossard,” specifies the CQRHT representative.
Three quarters of these asylum seekers found their place in the region, in particular because Laval and Montreal have regained a level of employment comparable to that before the pandemic, notes the CQRHT. Some 22,000 vacant positions still remain to be filled in the Quebec tourism industry.
It doesn’t work to say, “I’m offering you a job; you will find yourself a place to sleep.” It’s practically the opposite today.
“If it’s 50, it’s 50 more,” says Véronyque Tremblay, CEO of the Association Hôtellerie du Québec, who says she still has confidence in the importance of this plan. Of this number, 35 found a job in accommodation, she emphasizes, often in “positions that are not easy to fill”.
“This is the first year [d’un projet pilote de trois ans]. We still believe in it,” adds Martin Vézina, of the Association Restauration Québec. “For the moment, we are retaining the figure of 50. But there are 300 in the pipeline, which are coming. Gotta let us get started. »
Kateri Champagne Jourdain, Minister of Employment and initiator of the pilot project, wants to wait longer before drawing conclusions. “Summer marks the high tourist season, and the organizations responsible for deployment assure us that there will be more hiring in the coming months. We will then be better able to see whether the initiative is successful,” his office responded in writing.
Housing, productivity and paradox
In many places, the housing “filter” slows down the hiring of these asylum seekers, observes Jean-Philippe Chartrand, director of development and sustainable tourism at Tourisme Gaspésie. A “minority” of tourism companies have the luxury of a room intended to accommodate employees. “It doesn’t work to say, ‘I’m offering you a job; you will find yourself a place to sleep.” It’s practically the opposite today. »
Then, “we didn’t see many people taking action.” Around fifteen companies showed interest in Gaspésie, for example, but only one ultimately came to the information meeting.
The labor shortage causes a “paradox” among managers, adds Jean-Philippe Chartrand. “Our business leaders are overwhelmed because of the labor shortage, to the point where they no longer have time to come to meetings to talk about solutions to the shortage. »
Faced with these difficulties, they are focusing more and more on improving productivity in order to operate “with less labor”, he says, because this shift would offer more guarantees in the long term.
Asylum seekers versus temporary workers
Employers are increasingly turning to temporary workers to fill their positions. However, asylum seekers who are already in the country should be given priority, the federal government argued earlier this spring.
Since 1er May, employers must evaluate all their options before recruiting temporary workers, “including recruiting from asylum seekers with a valid work permit in Canada,” the federal regulation states.
These people with sometimes difficult pasts must adapt to the Quebec job market, but their hiring costs businesses nothing. Hiring a temporary worker, on the other hand, can cost thousands of dollars in immigration fees.
This report is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.