permanent residency in the province
through the Alberta Immigrant Nominee
Program. In certain instances, those
applications can take up to two years to
process.
Asked if he would make the jump
to Canada in today’s circumstances,
Hurtado didn’t hesitate.
“I had a good job in Mexico and I had
just bought a house. It wouldn’t have
been worth it financially to come and just
explore for a year.”
Eduardo Gomez, a more recent
immigrant and Hurtado’s colleague
at Paskal, finds himself caught in the
shifting regulatory landscape. Gomez
knew Hurtado fromMonterrey, having
attended the same veterinary school a
couple of years behind him, and hoped
to follow the same path to Canada. His
dream hit a snag last year when he was
called into a meeting at Paskal’s office
and learned that the TFWP changes
might affect him and his family.
Since then, Gomez has made progress
in his paperwork.
“Things are going better,” he said. “But
my wife and I were scared. We didn’t
know what we were going to do if the
government sent us back to Mexico.”
Gomez’s boss, Paskal, would be
as sorry as anyone to see the young
veterinarian sent back home. Over the
years, Paskal has brought in around 50
temporary foreign workers to help staff
his various operations, including a cattle
feedlot with a 65,000-head capacity. Of
those, all but one has stayed in Canada.
Paskal insisted the TFWP is essential to
his thriving businesses.
“It’s absolutely everything,” he
said. “The people we’ve brought up
are agricultural people. Most of them
come out of Mexico. They’re university
educated; a lot of them are veterinarians.
They’re willing to work in agriculture.
They see this as their employment for
years to come. They’re not looking, the
Spring
2015
Grains
West
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