SAIT Main Campus on Jan. 23. (Photo by Jimmy/The Press)
The International Experience Canada (IEC) program may help fill gaps in the tourism industry and alleviate some of the labour shortages in various industries, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
“This program brings a diverse range of skills and perspectives to our workforce, while also helping to address labour shortages in Canada’s tourism industry,” The Honourable Randy Boissonnault, Minister of Tourism of Canada, said in the statement on the website of IRCC. “At the same time, it provides Canadian youth with the opportunity to gain valuable work and life experiences abroad and to return home with an international perspective.:
The tourism industries have generated more than 52o,o00 jobs in the third quarter of 2022. That’s up from the high of 22.4 per cent from same quarter in 2021, but far below the pre-pandemic level of more than 568,000 jobs in the third quarter of 2019, according to Statistics Canada.
“I believe it will help tourism alive just to go back to the way it was,” said Denise Paulayan, a duty manager of Ramada Plaza Calgary Downtown. “You don’t see a lot of people from Canada taking the job of room cleaning. So of course the people that come from abroad, they want to start their life here and they will take housekeeping jobs, kitchen jobs. If we didn’t have this programs, I don’t know who would fill our housekeeping positions.”
In 2023, the federal government targeted about 90,000 international youth between the ages of 18 and 35 to bring them to Canada with IEC to participate in a two-year working experience program to assist Canadian employers looking for new employees, while also dealing with the operational costs of inflation.
“The IEC program helps me meet people from all over the world, while getting to learn more about different cultures and getting me out of my comfort zone,” said Abby Lien, a second-year student who experienced the IEC program two years ago in Banff.
“This program motivated me want to come back to Canada to explore more,” said Lien.
Although the tourism is gradually recovering from the pandemic, there are some vital shortages, including in the food and beverage industry, as well as in business travel, which is expected to take about another two to three years to fully recover.
Overworked and heavily staff in the tourism industry are eager for relief as well.
“I work at a fast-food restaurant and sometimes it’s just me running here and there,” says said Monika Morales, a part time cashier who works in the food and beverage industry. “In the end. I get tired when I go back home and I don’t have energy to do my assignments If this program could bring more workforce to help, then my burdens will be eased a little bit.”
