OTTAWA — One of Vancouver’s most successful companies says it might be forced to move its 1,200-employee head office outside the country because of problems with the federal government’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program.
Vancouver-based Lululemon Athletica Inc., which delivered a scathing written critique of federal rules on hiring foreigners, wants the same kind of exemption Ottawa grants to universities, the film industry and Microsoft.
That would allow the athletic apparel retailer, with global revenue of $2.1 billion in 2015, to avoid going through a time-consuming labour-market impact assessment process before recruiting a senior manager or design expert from one of the world’s apparel hubs, like London, New York or San Francisco.
“Our growth and our ability to remain headquartered in Vancouver will require that the vertically integrated apparel industry be granted a similar [labour-market impact assessment] transition plan exemption as the film industry and academia,” the company stated in a paper submitted to the House of Commons finance committee in late July.
Lululemon executives were asked Tuesday morning to comment on the statement to MPs about its head office, but as of late Wednesday afternoon the company hadn’t responded.
Ottawa’s market assessment process, toughened through reforms by the Conservative government of the day in 2014, includes the requirement that companies advertise openings to Canadians over a lengthy period before they can offer jobs to foreign workers.
Other companies in B.C.’s apparel industry, which had a total $3 billion in sales last year, also need greater freedom to headhunt around the world, according to Lululemon.
The exemptions should apply, it said, to a group of hard-to-find employees: senior managers, especially those in areas like purchasing and manufacturing, and experts in design and product development.
The company said it invests considerable time and money trying to train and recruit employees, but that there isn’t a deep enough talent pool in Canada to meet the company’s needs.
Irene Lanzinger, the president of the B.C. Federation of Labour, expressed concern with the tone of the submission.
“I think it is sabre-rattling, it is a threat,” she said. “I applaud them for their efforts [to invest in training], but they should increase those efforts.”
Economist Jock Finlayson, the Business Council of B.C.’s executive vice-president, said Lululemon — operating in a country with a relatively small apparel industry — is the kind of company that needs to headhunt overseas.
