Kamloops business groups are supportive of a proposal to temporarily allow international students to work more than 20 hours a week.

Howie Reimer, the Executive Director of the Kamloops Central Business Improvement Association, says while that cap – which is meant to ensure that international students are focused on their education – made sense in the past, removing it could help ease an ongoing labour shortage.

“I’m sure it has affected many businesses. I mean we have looked to hire for many different positions and they can only work 20 hours a week,” Reimer said. “The opposition is coming from ‘when are they going to do their studies?’ Well, you know what? I remember working three part time jobs while going to BCIT.”

“You find that balance as a student and you tell your employer, I can only work this many hours a week. There are so many jobs out there right now and I think its time they can revise that and look at it.”

The idea came about from a notice of motion from Kamloops Councillor Bill Sarai, who says allowing international students to work up to 30 hours a week will also help them make ends meet.

“Everything around them has gone up from housing to food, gasoline, utilities, everything,” Sarai said.

“The only thing they are not capable of doing is asking for an extra hour or two hours of work to offset some of those costs, so that is where we are asking for temporary relief for those international students because there are jobs out there not being filled because of that cap.”

Kamloops Chamber Executive Director, Acacia Pangilinan says while allowing students to work more won’t solve the labour shortages, it will help ease the situation.

“Speaking with international students and also speaking with our members that hire international students, there is definitely and appetite for some to have the ability to work more hours than what they’re legally allowed to,” she said.

“When that notice of motion came forward we were really excited about the idea because we still are hearing about these labour challenges in our business community.”

Speaking on the NL Morning News, she says not all students may want to work more hours, but she argues they should be given the option to.

“Not everyone is going to have the capacity to go to school full time and work in excess of 20 hours but there are lots of students who want that experience and who want to be able to do that and so, we think it’s s good idea to apply pressure to the Feds to try to look at that rule to open it up a bit for our international students,” she said.

“We’re in support of the city going forward and lobbying for that too.”

Pangilinan also says the extra hours may encourage students to stick around in Kamloops after they graduate.

“If we can provide meaningful opportunities for them to gain Canadian work experience and also at the same time pay some of their bills, like it starts to build that sort of ecosystem where international students are feeling comfortable and welcomed in our community and it makes them want to stay,” she said.

Sarai’s notice of motion is set to be discussed at the August 30 council meeting.

– With files from Bill Cowen