Much has been made of the pilot experience gap that plagues the Canadian helicopter industry. A 2010 human resource study of commercial pilots in Canada, commissioned by the Canadian Aviation Maintenance Council and prepared under the direction of industry stakeholders and representatives, indicated that “while no shortage is expected in the actual number of trained helicopter pilots available to work, the critical shortage is, and will continue to be, pilot experience.”
Across the country, operators report that newly-minted commercial helicopter pilots are unable to satisfy minimum experience requirements set out by the clients for whom they fly. In addition, they say, junior pilots lack the necessary skills to carry out the wide variety of specialized tasks demanded of the Canadian helicopter pilot. Drill moves, aerial firefighting, and survey work are all examples of flying jobs that demand a skill set that just isn’t taught in flight school, say operators.
“The shortage of experienced Canadian helicopter pilots is a big issue,” said Fred Jones, president of the Helicopter Association of Canada (HAC). “Every year, particularly during our busy season, we have spikes in demand, and that really aggravates the problem. During the peak summer months, I always get calls from operators looking for experienced crews. They have work, but can’t find crews to do it.”
Enter Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP).
Established in 1973, the program was originally designed to fill short-term vacancies for highly skilled labor, as well as seasonal agricultural openings and live-in caregiver jobs. In 2002, the program was expanded to cover all types of low-skilled workers.
Before they can hire a temporary foreign worker (TFW), Canadian employers must first file a Labour Market Opinion (LMO) application for government approval. The application must fulfil a number of conditions, including proving that the employer has made reasonable efforts to hire or train Canadian candidates for the position without success, and that the foreign worker is being sought to fill a genuine labor shortage. The government also wants employers to demonstrate that hiring a foreign worker will create new jobs for Canadians, or help to train them by passing along requisite skills. All of these conditions are meant to protect Canadians by giving them the first crack at available employment opportunities in the country.
Jones acknowledged that hiring Canadian pilots is always preferable, but he said that the lack of experienced candidates in the industry makes the hiring of TFWs an absolute necessity. In a May 2013 letter to then-Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development Diane Finley, the HAC president indicated strong support for the TFWP. “The Canadian helicopter industry depends on highly skilled seasonal foreign workers to supplement the growing shortage of experienced helicopter pilots in Canada,” he wrote.
Help or Hindrance?
Hiring TFWs may help operators meet their immediate needs, but what of the junior Canadian helicopter pilot, who is left to face the old adage, “you need experience to get experience?”
Kirsten Brazier, a helicopter and fixed-wing pilot from Vancouver, B.C., thinks that rather than being a boon to the industry, the TFWP is more of a crutch that prevents a “made in Canada” solution to the experience gap.
“No matter what segment of the industry you’re in, there is an experience gap,” Brazier told Vertical. “There are a lot more lower-time pilots than experienced ones. But when you take that fact, and then make it easy for operators to bring in foreign pilots to satisfy customer demands, the problem never gets fixed. If we were only allowed to look inside this country, we’d have to find a solution: either operators would have to pay more money to attract the experience, or they could take an equivalently experienced pilot [with transferable skills], or they could train pilots to bring them up to speed. It would be forced to happen on its own and customer demands would have to be modified. But since foreign pilots can just stream in, the problem never gets fixed.”
Jones countered that operators face a stark reality: “If customers insist on pilots with 1,500 or 2,000 or 3,000 hours in the contract, operators don’t have any option but to supply a pilot whose experience meets those standards,” he said. “If that need can’t be satisfied by Canadian pilots, operators can either leave the machine on the ground, or they can bring in foreign workers.”
Brazier, who has been flying for 20 years, started her career in the fixedwing sector before moving to helicopters. She is currently looking for work while studying to add a rotorcraft endorsement onto her U.S. Airline Transport Pilot certificate. She hopes the add-on will open the door to overseas work, since she hasn’t been able to find a job at home.
“I’ve applied to pretty much every helicopter job that has been advertised,” she said. “I don’t have as many hours in helicopters, but I’m well rounded in other areas: float flying, bush flying, remote contract work, a Canadian and U.S. fixed-wing airline transport licence with two-crew time. Compared to a similarly-houred helicopter pilot, I’m a lot more valuable with my other transferable skills.”
She acknowledged that the industry is highly competitive right now, and there is a dearth of jobs for the large contingent of unemployed Canadian helicopter pilots. But she claims that the TFWP is a big part of the problem, enabling operators to bypass Canadian candidates in favor of hiring foreign pilots.
“Applying for jobs is like sending resumes repeatedly into an abyss — none of us gets a response,” said Brazier. “When you send in an application, it goes unanswered and unacknowledged. That speaks volumes.”
She said there’s no evidence to support claims that companies review all applications thoroughly, or that not a single Canadian meets the advertised criteria. “I have a JetRanger PPC [pilot proficiency check] and I’m ready to move right now,” added Brazier. “I’m willing to go to the North Pole and live in a tent, and I’m getting no response. But the guy down the road with several years of long-lining experience isn’t getting called, either.”
Gilles Hudicourt, a pilot with Canadian charter operator Air Transat, has been a long-time and vocal opponent to hiring temporary foreign pilots in Canada. In a recent interview with Lee-Anne Goodman of The Canadian Press, Hudicourt said the government is making no effort to police employers to determine whether they have sincerely tried to find Canadian workers. “They always give shady reasons for needing TFWs; it’s rarely valid, and no one ever checks it out,” he told the reporter.
Following the Paper Trail
Vertical was provided with copies of recent aviation industry LMO applications obtained through an access to information request, including several from Canadian helicopter operators. In each case, employers were seeking permission to hire “temporary” foreign pilots after claiming that a search for Canadian workers had been unsuccessful.
One Saskatchewan operator looking for a helicopter pilot required a Canadian commercial helicopter licence and 750 hours of flight time, combined with machinist experience, with the lengthy employment term indicated as 20 years.
In Calgary, Alta., another operator applied for permission to hire a foreign Bell 206 pilot for a three-year term. That position required someone “skilled with a computer and admin experience” wrote the operator, along with a commercial helicopter licence and Bell 206 endorsement. There was no time requirement mentioned; merely that the operator “cannot find a Canadian pilot with admin and computer experience.”
Further north, a Yukon operator completed an LMO application to find a helicopter pilot for a five-month term, citing a commercial helicopter licence, 1,000 hours of total flight time, and five years’ flying experience as the job requirements.
Another northern operator searching for a helicopter pilot required a valid Canadian commercial licence, one year of northern flying experience, 1,000 hours pilot in command (PIC) time, 100 hours PIC on a Bell 206 JetRanger, and a willingness to relocate to a small northern community. When asked to explain the rationale behind offering this job to a TFW instead of a Canadian helicopter pilot, the operator wrote: “Pilots with (the) combination of experience required and willingness to live in an isolated northern community are so rare, that it is (a) significant barrier to the business to enter this market.” That particular job had the potential to become a permanent placement.
And in a final example, a B.C. operator filled out an LMO application to find a helicopter pilot for a two-year term. Listed requirements included secondary school and a Category 1 medical with a valid Canadian commercial helicopter licence, along with 500 hours minimum flight time. Why was a foreign worker being sought for this position? “Customers require experienced pilots and Canada has no experienced pilots and also pilots willing to live and work in the North,” wrote the operator in the application.
Brazier agreed with Hudicourt that the government needs to crack down on the TFWP, saying that too many LMO applications are being approved for jobs that could be filled by Canadian pilots. “Most of us in the industry know it’s going on. It’s up to the government as the regulatory agency to police the program to ensure those pilots are really needed; and if they are, that they’re being paid fairly,” she said.
The HAC’s Jones said individual operators have told him they are paying foreign pilots what they would pay similarly qualified Canadian pilots, although the association has never surveyed operator members about TFW hiring practices. He said that such a survey would make sense, in order to collect information about an “issue that keeps coming up.”
Across all industries, the number of TFWs in Canada has more than tripled in recent years, increasing from 101,000 in 2002 to 338,000 in 2012. During the same time period, the country’s unemployment rate remained in the neighborhood of seven percent.
The Canadian government is currently reviewing the TFWP and has promised reforms in the coming weeks. Recently, the Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA) commended the government for imposing a moratorium on the food service industry’s access to the TFWP, after allegations of program abuse in that sector were brought to light.
“ALPA remains concerned that aviation jobs continue to be outsourced to foreign workers when a number of highly qualified Canadian pilots are unemployed,” said the association.