Alberta’s Employment Minister Hector Goudreau

COUPLE'S CANADIAN BID 'HEADACHE'

22nd September 2008, 11:26am

Restaurant managers Mark and Sharon Knight, have followed up an Eat Out feature urging qualified catering staff to seek a new career in Alberta, Canada, thinking that this could be the answer to their “lifelong dream”.

Initially the couple "drew a blank" but after the restaurant magazine took up their case they are now hoping to make a move across the Atlantic.

This spring Alberta's Employment Minister Hector Goudreau visited the UK and promised a "better quality of life with higher wages and lower fuel and food bills" for those emigrating to the Canadian province with its booming economy driven by oil and natural gas reserves.

Taking up the challenge, the Knights who manage Coburn's restaurant in Lyndhurst, Hampshire, cancelled a holiday to Gambia next January and instead plan a fact-finding trip to Canada.

But after repeated calls to the country's London Embassy and to Canada they "hit a brick wall."

Mark, who has been in the trade for 26 years says: "All we got was recorded messages urging callers to log on to their website but again this does not help us in our search for work in Canada."

Sharon adds: "We contacted the Fairmont Hotel in Jasper Park who said they were keen to recruit British staff but that we would need a work visa – and this is where the problems arose. We have been told there is an application form on the website but we cannot access it."

Taking up their case Eat Out contacted Murray Sigler, managing director of the Alberta UK office who said: "The driver for the Knights is to ensure that the Fairmont has Labour Market Opinion classification, showing the hotel has tried to hire locally and can now recruit from overseas.

"And then they must get a job offer from the hotel and this will enable them to apply for a temporary work permit. It may seem fairly complex but Helpline Alberta can help anyone looking to move to Canada."

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