Regional Connections brought in an expert on foreign workers last week to teach local businesses how to bring in workers from other countries during times when the labour market is slow.

Keith Swinton is the employer liaison with Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada; he oversees all of Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

"I've heard of shortages and difficulties in recruiting," said Swinton, "so I thought I'd come down and organize a couple sessions."

The shortages Swinton referred to come from the business expansion in the Pembina Valley which led to a rise in the need for employees. When businesses can't find local workers, they need to look at people from other nations. This is where Swinton comes in to provide advice.

"The purpose of the sessions," Swinton explained, "is to provide basic information about the types of services the department and I can provide to [businesses] to try and meet some of their labour-market needs that they're not able to meet by hiring Canadian citizens or permanent residents."

One representative from Farm King in Morden attended the meeting to stay on top of the changes in immigration.

"It's good to know what the new programs are and how we could utilize them and maybe help with immigration," said HR and safety manager for Farm King, Jennifer Wood.

Wood's gone through the process of bringing foreign workers to the area before, but still learned new things during the presentation.

"If we can't find someone within the area, this may be a way to look at a foreign country and bring someone in that would have the experience that we would be looking for," she said.

Swinton spoke at three separate sessions at Regional Connections' offices on Friday, two in Morden and one in Winkler.