{"id":10103,"date":"2014-05-13T20:16:09","date_gmt":"2014-05-13T12:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=10103"},"modified":"2014-05-13T20:16:09","modified_gmt":"2014-05-13T12:16:09","slug":"quebec-wants-exemption-from-moratorium-on-temporary-foreign-workers-in-restaurants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/05\/13\/quebec-wants-exemption-from-moratorium-on-temporary-foreign-workers-in-restaurants\/","title":{"rendered":"Quebec wants exemption from moratorium on temporary foreign workers in restaurants"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Minister<\/a>
Minister of Employment and Social Development and Minister for Multiculturalism Jason Kenny. Photo courtesy of Jason Kenney’s official Facebook page.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MONTREAL \u2013 The Quebec government is calling on Ottawa to lift the ban on restaurants hiring temporary foreign workers \u2013 at least when it comes to its own province.<\/p>\n

The province\u2019s immigration minister Kathleen Weil was to meet with her federal counterpart Chris Alexander on Monday, according to her spokesman.<\/p>\n

Dave McMahon said Weil will ask that Quebec be granted an exemption to the moratorium.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a bit worried about the impact of the moratorium on our restaurants and on our small and medium-sized businesses,\u201d he said Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are ready to work with the federal government to tighten the rules of the program if need be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weil is also planning to make the same case to Employment Minister Jason Kenney, who oversees the temporary foreign workers program, McMahon said.<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for Kenney said there are no immediate plans to lift the ban, in Quebec or anywhere else.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbuse of the temporary foreign worker program will not be tolerated,\u201d Alexandra Fortier said in an email.<\/p>\n

\u201cAllegations of misuse will continue to be investigated and any employer found to have violated the rules will face serious consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ottawa announced the moratorium late last month, after a string of reports alleging the program was being misused by the restaurant industry.<\/p>\n

Overall, the program has jumped from about 100,000 people in 2002 to as many as 338,000 now working across the country. Last year alone, Ottawa approved approximately 240,000 temporary foreign workers.<\/p>\n

The moratorium has been widely criticized by industry groups.<\/p>\n

Quebec\u2019s restaurant association called it \u201cexaggerated and unreasonable.\u201d<\/p>\n

McMahon said there hadn\u2019t been any problems in Quebec.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we speak there\u2019s no abuse that\u2019s been reported to us in Quebec, and especially in the restaurant sector,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MONTREAL \u2013 The Quebec government is calling on Ottawa to lift the ban on restaurants hiring temporary foreign workers \u2013 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":7211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,1145,6],"tags":[2198,3308,2583],"class_list":["post-10103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-headline","category-immigration","tag-jason-kenney","tag-moratorium","tag-tfw","mauthors-benjamin-shingler","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}