Léo Mailhot inc.
© Photo Marie-Christine Gaudreau
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Éric Mailhot and Ariane Mailhot are sorry to see the yard empty due to production delays.
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Nothing is going well for the pallet and vegetable box manufacturing company Léo Mailhot inc. in Saint-Alexis. It is not the work that is lacking, on the contrary. Rather, the company is forced to increase production times and refuse contracts for lack of manpower to do the job. The height of despair, the company had to use the services of twelve Guatemalan workers. However, the workers expected last December have still not arrived.
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The administrative burden puts the activities of the company at risk, no more and no less. “We are not considered to be an agricultural or agrifood business, although our products are essential for market gardeners,” laments Ariane Mailhot, human resources coordinator and executive assistant at Léo Mailhot inc. The vegetable boxes designed in their workshop are used to contain seeds and crops, to store and sometimes transport products grown by farmers. “If we don’t have products to deliver to our customers, the vegetables will stay in the fields, there will be losses and the repercussions will be enormous,” notes Ariane Mailhot.
© Photo Marie-Christine Gaudreau
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Twelve foreign workers were to come and lend a hand to the company last December. They still haven’t arrived.
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Delays with heavy consequences
Not being considered a priority, the request for access to foreign workers is therefore constantly relayed below the stack. However, the demand for these workers was formulated a long time in advance, in July 2020. “Everything is accepted. All that remains is for the visas to be issued by the visa office, ”explains Ms. Mailhot.
Well aware of the matter, the federal deputy for Montcalm, Luc Thériault describes this situation as a real museum of horrors. “Every year, it’s the same problem that comes up. The deadlines are indecent and this is the typical case of the administrative paperwork which puts a brake on economic development, ”protested Mr. Thériault. According to him, it is inconceivable that the company Léo Mailhot inc. is not considered a priority even though it is directly part of the food chain.
Since foreign workers were not arriving, the local Bloc Québécois team began follow-ups with Services Canada and the Ministère de l’Immigration, de la Francisation et de l’Intégration as of February 1. Despite multiple appeals, still no trace of the coveted twelve foreign workers. “There is administrative congestion; no way to put the priority folder. And it is necessary to take into account the quarantine ”, continues the deputy.
He regrets that it is the entrepreneurs who bear the brunt of the initial mismanagement of the file. According to him, Léo Mailhot inc. is not the only company to suffer from problems caused by undue administrative delays. “It is nonsense that impact studies on the labor market have to be repeated every year. The duration of the visa should be increased to three years and the mobility of workers made possible according to the needs in the territory, ”suggests Mr. Thériault. In reality, these suggestions are those of the community itself. Mr. Thériault has made it a hobbyhorse since the start of his mandate.
By the same date last year, the company had manufactured more than 6,000 vegetable boxes.
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Hold the fort
In the meantime, the management team has gone to great lengths to try to recruit local staff. With a dozen employees only on the floor, while it would require at least 25, the company must use creativity to survive. As a direct consequence, the order times have been increased; going from two weeks to one month. “We have to move the employees up the assembly line. For example, for a week we can only cut, then the following week only assembly, ”explains Ariane Mailhot.
To attract staff, Léo Mailhot inc. offers transportation between Joliette and its Saint-Alexis facilities, but this offensive has yielded little results. The company has also approached help centers for immigrants, women and natives. She has turned to countless resources in the region to recruit employees, to no avail.
The company even invested $ 2 million in a new custom assembly line aimed at reducing the physical effort required to handle vegetable boxes. With this innovation, work becomes accessible to a greater number of people, especially women. However, without personnel to operate it, it remains at a standstill. “We need at least eight employees to start the line,” says Ms. Mailhot.
© Photo Marie-Christine Gaudreau
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Léo Mailhot inc. invested $ 2 million in a custom assembly line that it cannot use due to lack of personnel to operate it.
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Although the plant has a production capacity of 20,000 vegetable boxes annually, Ariane Mailhot expects to be able to deliver at most 3 to 5,000 this year. At this time last year, the company’s yard was packed with pallets and vegetable boxes. This year, the landscape is much more deserted. “We have no advance on the pallets and no vegetable box made. “
The lack of manpower has been felt for several years now. On the other hand, if the situation continues to worsen as is the case this year, and if nothing is done to reduce the legislation surrounding the arrival of foreign workers, the Léo Mailhot inc. fears of no longer being able to meet the needs of its customers and of entering a decline. “We want to move the business forward, but now we’re going the other way. “For lack of results with recruitment strategies and in the face of deadlock in processing applications for foreign workers, the company is gradually turning to the avenue of process automation.
With hope for only resource, Ariane Mailhot will undertake to draft its requests for foreign labor for next year in the weeks to come; even though the requests for the current year have not yet been settled.
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