Temporary Mexican workers are spicing up Canada's economy as labour-hungry businesses search for employees to fill low-skilled positions.

But observers of federal government programs to import such workers say rules need to be changed to benefit both the labourers and companies they serve.

Peter Veress, president of Vermax Immigration Consulting, based in Calgary, says in recent months his firm has brought 100 low-skilled Mexican labourers to Alberta, mainly to work in the construction and manufacturing sectors, and expects to import another 400 to 500 in 2006.

"You have to go to the right market for that need: If it's labour, it makes sense to bring them from Mexico," Veress says.

Coronado Stone Works plant manager Jim Bore, left, chats with Mexican worker Tomas Castaneda, who is "pulling stone" that has just come out of the Calgary's company's ovens.

Such workers from Mexico just require valid temporary work permits. Adds Veress: "It's also cheaper to bring them from Mexico because it is the closest (of all Latin American countries) and they've got a good reputation and so far are proving to work very well in this environment."

Most of the thousands of low-skilled Mexican workers who travel to Canada come under the agriculture workers program, which has been in existence since the late 1960s.

More and more temporary labourers are migrating to Canada through a low-skilled worker pilot project run by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) and Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC).

Established in 2002, the program hires foreign workers for industries outside agriculture, usually in occupations that merely require a high school diploma or job-specific training.

Guidelines allow low-skilled labourers to work for a maximum of 12 months; they are eligible to come back to Canada only after returning to their countries of origin for four months.

To qualify, employers must demonstrate they've undertaken ongoing efforts to recruit Canadian youth, Aboriginal people, recent immigrants and Canadians; have consulted with the local unions if the position is covered under a collective agreement; and have signed an employer-employee contract outlining wages, duties and conditions related to the transportation, accommodation, health and occupational safety of the foreign worker.

The businesses must also cover all recruitment costs related to the hiring of the foreign worker; help the worker find suitable and affordable accommodation; and pay the full airfare for the foreign worker to and from their home country.

They must also provide medical coverage until the worker is eligible for provincial health insurance coverage.

Ed Bot, president and owner of Calgary-based Coronado Stone Works, which manufactures stone-like facades, home interiors and exteriors, last summer hired 10 Mexican workers for his operation. He says he is happy with the program and that he plans to bring in even more workers.

"Business has been very good and I've been short on product for the last 10 years, every year by about 20 to 30 per cent," he says. "The problem is the competition (for workers) is so high in this town ... there's not much loyalty anymore, and I can understand that, but we can only pay them so much," starting at wages of $10 per hour, he says.

"I'm very pleased with the way (the Mexican workers) are working out. They work hard, they come here to work hard and make money, which they send back home. I'm planning on bringing in 30 more in February."

Tomas Castaneda is among the Coronado employees who arrived last August. He says coming to Canada to work is a rare opportunity for him to have new experiences and make some serious dinero - at least compared to what he toiled for back home as a general labourer.

"Up until four years ago I was a small businessman before my business failed; I had a two-ton truck and I delivered fruit and vegetables to residents" in the city of Durango, located several hours north of Mexico City, Castaneda said. "After that I worked as a labourer in very difficult conditions under the hot sun - 40°C, 45°C - very hard work."

He shares a three-room apartment in southeast Calgary with three of his Mexican co-workers. Other than what he spends on rent and food - and the occasional cerveza - he sends the rest home, about $800 per month.

Although life is very different here - Castaneda notes he enjoys the frosty weather, although he says "sometimes it's a little too cold," and adds the fact that Calgary is so clean - the toughest part of life in this foreign land is being separated from his wife and three children, and also the language barrier, as Castaneda speaks only a few words of English.

He says he socializes mostly with his Mexican colleagues, but occasionally with their Canadian counterparts. He has little contact with other Canadians outside of work, mainly because of his lack of English.

Phil Mooney, an immigration consultant based in Ontario, would like to see the system changed and rules relaxed to expedite the importation of low-skilled workers. He says HRSDC should only become involved if employers look to bring in people to fill positions where no worker shortage exists. He advocates drafting a "restricted list" of these occupations.

"If Jack the plumber wants to bring in a plumber's helper, he first checks with HRSDC to see if it's on a restricted list, and if the answer is 'no,' it should just be a matter of (CIC) processing the work application," says Mooney, who's also a spokesman for the Canadian Association of Professional Immigration Consultants.

He adds that the lengthy paperwork and requirement to fly workers to and from Canada impedes many smaller businesses from accessing temporary foreign workers.

According to CIC data, the number of temporary workers from Mexico in Canada more than doubled to 11,340 in 2004 from 5,383 in 1995, ranking it second after the U.S. in terms of countries supplying short-term labourers.

The Ontario-based United Food and Commercial Workers Canada (UFCW) keeps track of what happens to many of these migrant labourers - especially those who come to work on farms in Ontario and B.C. - but increasingly also the workers who arrive to toil in other industries.

Stan Raper, a UFCW Canada organizer and co-ordinator of migrant agricultural worker support programs, says past experience in the agriculture sector has revealed that migrant workers are often mistreated, forced to live in less than adequate housing and with little recourse to air their concerns or switch employers.

Mario Rondeau, acting director of HRSDC, insists there are safeguards to protect migrant workers.

He says that as with their Canadian counterparts, the temporary foreign workers can avail themselves to the same mechanisms under provincial employment standards acts and regulations.

In addition, he says liaison officers from embassies and consulates act as "ombudsmen," monitor the workers' situations and intervene on their behalf.

"And we know, in fact, that when there are issues possibly between a worker and an employer, the issue will be referred to the liaison officer of the consulate or embassy who will try to examine the problem. There's the possibility the worker could be transferred to another employer," Rondeau says.

The Mexican embassy, for example, has opened an office in Leamington, Ont., where thousands of Mexican agriculture labourers live and work.

But UFCW Canada's Raper says such measures provide few assurances that migrant workers' rights are protected.

He also argues that today's immigration policies, implemented in the 1960s and '70s, are in stark contrast to those of earlier decades when needed workers were brought in through a straightforward immigration process.

"These workers never have the opportunity to get (permanent resident) status. So even though an agriculture worker or foreign worker has been coming here for 30 years, they never get the right to become a Canadian citizen, even though they've been in the industry and have proven themselves to employers year after year after year. They are never granted that opportunity.

"Instead, they're saying these workers aren't good enough to become Canadian citizens. They can work here, but then they have to go home."

Few argue that Canada, and especially the booming provinces of Alberta, B.C. and Ontario, will need all classes of workers in the future.

Dorothy Schreiber, a spokeswoman for Alberta Human Resources and Employment, says while worker shortages are most acute in the oil and gas industry, labour shortfalls are plaguing much of Alberta's economy - a situation that is expected to worsen in the years to come.

"In the next 10 years, potentially we could see a shortage of up to 100,000 workers across all sectors," Schreiber says, which represents about a five-per-cent shortfall.

Coronado's Castaneda would dearly love to one day become a permanent member of Canada's workforce and move his wife and children to El Norte.

"Life is good here," he says. "and I think Calgary would be a good place to raise a family."

(John Ludwick can be reached at ludwick@businessedge.ca)