More than 500 health-care workers in the Lower Mainland are at risk of being deported this year as their visas expire unless the federal government steps in and restores immigration policies鈥嬧�嬧�嬧��, says the Hospital Employees Union (HEU).

Nearly 100 members of the HEU gathered outside Surrey Memorial Hospital Thursday, April 17, to call on the federal government to restore the number of provincial nominee program (PNP) spots. These are HEU members who work in food service, housekeeping, dietary aide, and security roles within Fraser Health or Vancouver Coastal Health. They are a "critical part of the team," HEU secretary-business manager Lynn Bueckert said. 

"They're at risk of being deported because they will not have a work permit, and the reason they won't have a work permit is because the federal government, last fall changed the rules to the PNP, provincial nominee program, and cut the number of spots for British Columbians." 

The provincial government requested an allocation to nominate 11,000 people in 2025, but instead, it was allocated 4,000, which was 50 percent less than the allocation B.C. received in 2024. 

A news noted, "As part of the updated approach, the Province will process the majority of its application inventory and accept approximately 1,100 new applications this year, mainly for positions that contribute directly to the delivery of health-care services, such as doctors, nurses and allied-health professionals."

"The updated PNP guidelines ... limit any new health-care spots to a small number of HEU-represented jobs, including care aides, porters and pharmacy assistants 鈥� leaving many full-time HEU members in other critical roles shut out,"  

These cuts come at a time when there is a massive labour shortage in the health-care sector in B.C., Bueckert said. 

"Workers are working short every single solitary day in health care. Migrant workers are part of the solution to the labour shortage in British Columbia, and so we're here to support these workers, but we're also here to send the federal government a message, and the message is, stop scapegoating immigrants and start doing your job and fixing the problem that you created in the fall with the cuts to the PNP." 

"Imagine 500 jobs being vacant because these workers weren't able to have a work permit to stay here and do the job that they're trained to do," Bueckert said. "We need them, and British Columbia needs them." 

These 500 jobs are just in Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, as other health authorities did not respond to HEU's request for information. 

Bueckert said this massive cut has had a negative impact across the province, not just in health care.

"Businesses are saying this is a problem that we did not have the right allocation from the federal government. They could change that ... They could change back the number of allocations that we get for this province. We depend on these workers to help us with our economy," she said. 

Jasveer Kaur, who works in housekeeping at Surrey Memorial Hospital, said she and her colleagues felt betrayed by the federal government when these changes were announced. Kaur came to Canada from India as an international student and has a work permit that will expire next year. 

As Kaur and many of her colleagues are in Canada on work permits, they only have a limited time in the country. But their jobs "were like the way to permanent residency."

"We all felt betrayed and disrespected because our jobs were hope for the better future," Kaur said. 

Bueckert and the HEU are calling on the federal government to "make a commitment to an immigration policy that supports a provincial nominee program, that restores the spots for British media, and that creates a pathway to permanent residency for migrant workers."

On Monday, the provincial government announced updates to the program in response to the "drastic cuts in the number of spots allocated by the federal government," HEU said. 

Harish Kumer is a food service worker at Fraser Health who has a passion for cooking and serving members of the community through food. When he was hired, his managers told him that there would be an opportunity for him to apply for permanent residency in connection with his job. 

This changed when the cuts were announced, Harish said. 

"Now I have spent, like, more than a year and they made a sudden change. They didn't give us any ultimatum. They just made a sudden change and now I can't use that experience, which I have here anywhere else. So that time, instead of being rewarded, it just got wasted," he said. 

This not only impacts him but also impacts his wife and young daughter. 

The Manitoba government announced a work permit extension on Tuesday, April 15, for "

Eligible candidates whose visas expired in 2024 or in 2025 will be able to apply for the extension starting April 22. They must be employed in the province and plan to establish themselves as permanent residents there.

鈥淏y allowing eligible candidates to extend their work permits, we鈥檙e helping more Manitoba workers and families to continue building their lives in Manitoba,鈥� Manitoba's Labour and Immigration Minister Malaya Marcelino said. 鈥淭his is good news for our economy, businesses and communities across Manitoba.鈥� 

The HEU has over 60,000 members in B.C.