Facing no income for 6 months, these construction workers might have to abandon their Canadian dreams

A twist accompany in Dartmouth is do-or-die(a) to regain facilitate for three employees from the Philippines who may have to leave Canada because of a mistake in their applications to renew work permits.

In two cases, Brycon Construction forgot to pay a $230 employer fee as part of the application. In the third, it neglected to submit a labour market impact assessment.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) rejected the renewals and told the men they had to stop working immediately, leaving them with the option to either restart their entire application from scratch or depart the country in 90 days.

"I thought, 'oh my God, is this really happening?'" said Dave Hiscock, the operations manager at Brycon Construction. He said he can't understand why the department didn't flag that a small detail of the application was missing.

"It's an awful penalty for whether a fee wasn't paid or a piece of paper wasn't put in. You're uprooting three-plus lives," said Hiscock.

"These people have done nothing wrong while they've been in Canada. They've paid their taxes. They're good working staff."

On average, it takes about 180 days, or six months, to consider a new application. During that time, the men cannot work and their provincial health card is made invalid.

Brycon Construction just began work on the Highway 103 twinning project between Hubbards and Chester on the province's South Shore.

The men — Jafferson Palabasan, Raddy Adams Manicadao and Rene Logrinio — are vital to the project, said Hiscock, who called his local member of Parliament but was told nothing could be done to expedite the process.

The rejections came as a shock for the three men, who arrived at the same time in 2022. All have applied to become permanent residents, hoping to stay here and bring their families to Halifax. Now, they don't know how they'll afford food. 

"It's a dream city to me. It's a better future to my daughter," said Palabasan, who has been waiting for approval to move his wife and six-year-old daughter out of the Philippines.

"Seeing them struggling, it's doubling the hardship I'm experiencing now."

Logrinio sends money home to support his wife and three daughters. He doesn't know if he can afford to wait out the new six-month process.

"Without a job or income, I cannot survive here," he said.

Adams Manicadao said his savings are almost gone and he can no longer pay for his wife's insulin to manage her diabetes.

The situation is becoming more and more common, said Elizabeth Wozniak, an immigration lawyer based in Halifax.

She said years ago, immigration officers could use their discretion to flag a missing piece of an application that could be fixed within minutes. Now, she said, the work permits are rejected outright.

"When it doesn't work, it goes really, really badly really fast, and the consequences are huge," she said. "It's a bit of a minefield when you're applying for extension applications."

In the meantime, it's next to impossible for Brycon to hire local staff or contract out the work, Hiscock said. When he books six job interviews, he's lucky if one applicant shows up, he said.

"There's a lot of days of pulling hair and wondering where are we going to find people to get the work done," he said.

Brycon now employs 18 international workers among a staff of 120. All of them are hoping to stay with the company long term and become permanent residents in Canada, Hiscock said.

The operations manager said he's learned a terrible lesson, and is advising other companies to learn from the mistake.

In the future, Brycon will use immigration consultants to make sure the applications for his international employees are done correctly, he said.

"This will never happen again under my watch, never. Lesson learned."

Videojournalist

Carolyn Ray is a videojournalist who has reported out of three provinces and two territories, and is now based in Halifax. You can reach her at Carolyn.Ray@cbc.ca

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