“My name is Agnes Cabe and I stand before you tonight representing the temporary foreign workers of Sunshine Coast. I am here to address the important issue affecting many temporary foreign workers and families, including mine…”
Cabe attended a regular meeting of District of Sechelt council June 4, to implore the attending councillors for support for a motion brought forward by Mayor John Henderson, asking for a letter to be sent to Patrick Weiler, MP for West Vancouver – Sunshine Coast – Sea to Sky Country, regarding temporary foreign workers (TFW) living and working in Sechelt.
Mayor Henderson’s motion notes these workers came to Canada under immigration programs and regulations, which allowed them to have their spouse and children accompany them, along with assurances the worker could both renew their own work permit and renew the permits for their spouse and children.
“Early in 2025, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada unilaterally changed their policy whereby the worker’s permit can be renewed but those of their spouse and family cannot, thereby causing uncertainty and grief to many of the families who are facing the prospect of either staying in Canada and being separated from their families or all leaving Canada to keep their families together. This despite having made their homes here and being important contributors to our community’s well being,” the motion reads in part.
Cabe added, this would be devastating for the TFWs left behind in Canada.
“… I strongly believe that recognizing our value to our community is crucial at this time, we are not just temporary workers. We are neighbours. We are colleagues and friends. We have built relationships, learned about the Canadian culture and adapted to local ways of life. Our children attend school here, and our spouses works, and sometimes they volunteer in the community.”
Coun. Donna Bell was the only councillor to support the motion. Councillors Brenda Rowe and Dianne McLauchlan voted against it. Councillors Alton Toth and Adam Shepherd weren’t in attendance and councillor Darren Inkster attended by Zoom, but dropped out due to technical difficulties.
Rowe told council she couldn’t support the motion because she didn’t feel she was familiar enough with the subject.
“So, it's certainly something that I'd like to have a discussion with Mr. Weiler about, but I can't be in support of writing a letter of support without having more information.”
When Mayor Henderson asked if she had any questions he could possibly answer, Rowe responded, “Well, I'd like to understand what is behind the change. I mean, the federal government must, I'm sure that something is driving this, that this isn't a random change, just for the fun of it, if you will. I'd like to understand what's behind it, because I may have supported that in the federal election there.”
McLauchlan said that while it’s “nice that they are bringing their families over, I guess the unfortunate part here is that, you know, we're facing this American tariff issue and job issue ourselves, which makes it very hard to just do things as we had until recently.”
She noted a recent news article she read in the National Post from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, pointed to the fact Canada’s “record high” immigration policies have had a negative effect on jobs and housing affordability. She added she would not support the motion, but instead will let the federal government continue the work it’s doing around immigration.
Inkster told Coast Reporter in an email that he would have supported the motion, but he was unable to hear anything, so left the meeting.
Coun. Alton Toth did not attend the meeting, but did respond to an email from Coast Reporter explaining he is also in favour of the “concept.”
“I thought this issue to be a slam dunk, so wasn't worried about trying to rearrange my schedule to find a place to take the meeting from,” said Toth. “Staff had actually suggested cancelling the meeting the week before, so I made other plans. Unfortunately, the mayor felt that his Notice of Motion warranted a meeting that wasn't otherwise needed. It was actually suggested at one point that support could have easily been obtained as a letter to council. I'm not sure why the need for the overly theatrical presentation, including an unscheduled delegation. Perhaps the mayor can provide some insight into why he didn't express to council ahead of time why this was important to him, or that he had invited people to attend and speak outside of our process. I actually plan to bring it up as business arising when we deal with the minutes from this meeting, so despite the conspiracies, this will actually get another chance at approval.”
Coun. Adam Shepherd told Coast Reporter he’s upset with the fact there appears to be a conspiracy theory, which implies Sechelt councillors have so much animosity toward the mayor, they’re willing to damage the interests of the Filipino community to publicly embarrass him.
“I just find this too incredible to believe. Having worked with the various councillors now for three years, I just don’t see that kind of malicious intent or behaviour. Why would I pick this particular meeting to sabotage the mayor?” Shepherd wrote in an email.
At issue, he explained, was the fact it was unnecessary to hold a public meeting for only two agenda items when the letter of support could have simply been circulated to council.
“Also, I stated that I had not received any correspondence on this matter and didn’t have any background on the groups pursuing this, details on existing federal legislation, is this a national campaign? Other communities involved? Was there any urgency to this from the district perspective, etc.,” Shepherd wrote. “The problem with leaving all discussion and decision on an item at a regular council meeting is that any type of reservation or concern may arise. The mayor did not reach out beforehand other than sending the motion out, or tell council he had invited members of the Filipino community to come out and speak on the matter.”
He noted, councillors do have private lives outside of municipal affairs.
“Councillor Inkster has a family and still works. Councillor Toth has a family and various private businesses apart from his council and SCRD work. I had been in Nelson for a week as I have a brother-in-law with MS that we have to help out,” said Shepherd. “I had informed our clerk beforehand that I wouldn’t be attending the meeting but had no idea who was attending or not. I didn’t even realize the motion had been defeated until the next day. For the most part, I think I have a very good attendance record.”
Meanwhile, Henderson says the big story here is not council’s reaction to the meeting, but instead the plight of these workers, their families and their employers are going through.
“That’s what matters. You know, there's an urgency to it,” Henderson said. “There are waiting times of upwards of a year, I'm told to renew a permit. So, if you imagine yourself as a worker and you've got a two-year permit and you're a year and a half into it, now when you apply, you won't get approved until it expires.”
Henderson added, in that case long-standing employees won’t be able to work so will have no money to help support their family.
“I just I want us as a community to support these people and their employers. They are an important part of our making Sechelt a wonderful, livable community and we should be doing everything we can to help them.”
This story has been updated since it was first published Jun 10.
