Music venues in Ottawa are crying foul after a recent work permit fee increase will require international musicians to pay an additional $275 on top of the $150 they already pay to enter the country.
The additional fee is for a Labour Market Opinion (LMO), which is an assessment of whether the job the applicant intends to do could be filled by a Canadian instead. In the past, LMOs were covered by the Department of Employment and Social Development after a potential worker had applied for the $150 work permit.
“The $275 fee is very fair compared to say, the States, where Canadian bands have to pay, not only double of that, but if they want to expedite their application, since it can take very long, up to $1200,” said Alexandra Fortier, the press secretary for Jason Kenney, the minister for Employment and Social Development.
“In 2012 alone, 60 per cent of the labour market opinions requested were not used. So employers could just request as many as they liked, but at the end of the day, the tax payer paid,” she said.
She said these statistics were what prompted Minister Kenney to create a policy whereby the employer paid for the LMO.
“This also ensures they have been diligent in finding a Canadian, that they’ve asked if there is a Canadian available to do the same type of work,” she said.
Claudia Balladelli is in charge of music promotions at Mercury Lounge, a club that often hosts international musicians. She said the fee will severely inhibit their ability to host international musicians in the future.
“We are ambassadors to world music culture in Ottawa. It will directly impact how we can provide that form of entertainment to the people of Ottawa and how we can represent other countries’ culture. This just makes us more of an isolationist state,” she said via email.
While the new fee is meant to promote more job opportunities for Canadian workers, Balladelli said for musicians this will make international music less accessible in Canada.
She said she doesn’t think the new fee will promote more Canadian acts in small venues, as almost every bar or club that hosts musicians will also host Canadian artists.
“In fact this will negatively impact our Canadian musicians’ ability to play and succeed in other countries,” Balladelli said.
In a press release, the Canadian Federation of Musicians supported the new fee and reassured members of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) that the fee would likely not apply to many of them.
“If Canadian bar and restaurant owners wish to avoid these fees when importing musicians from the United States, they need simply hire AFM musicians and sign a union contract for their services. This is a procedure they should consider regardless to ensure professional quality, and the contract is their guarantee the band will appear and perform as agreed upon,” Alan Willaert, AFM vice-president from Canada, said in the statement.
A petition on the website, Change.org has already garnered more than 100,000 signatures as many people are outraged at some of the stipulations of the fee.
For instance, festivals and bigger venues, such as the Air Canada Centre and Scotiabank place, are exempt from the fee because they are not considered concert venues.
Additionally, the new fee, and $150 work permit fee, apply to every band member and crew who are not Canadian.
Fortier said there are ways around the fee, including the obvious one of simply hiring Canadian acts.
“Artists who go through a promoter or booking agent that book them for several venues only pay the fee once. So the promoter or booking agent would pay the fee, not the artist,” she said.
The Department of Employment and Social Development also consulted “a wide range of stakeholders” that included small businesses, according to Fortier.
She said, from their research, small businesses were “happy about this, because at the end of the day, they want Canadian workers.”
But Balladelli said neither Mercury Lounge, nor any local club she knows of were consulted on the new fee and that when it came into effect Aug. 7, it was a surprise.
“We don’t involve ourselves in the politics of the matter and just focus on making things happen. We’ll find a way to work around this issue, as we always do,” Balladelli said.
