Indigenization Langara College has difficulty recruiting and maintaining critical Indigenous staff. P2 SOCCER SPECIAL championship. P3 CCAA kicks off Langara Falcons men’s soccer team hosting a national Fresh takeaway Students facing inflation seek fresh fruits and vegetables in their diet. langaravoice.ca NOVEMBER 10, 2022 + VOL. 56 NO. 2 * VANCOUVER, B.C. HANNAH ROWENA MONDIWA PHOTO COLLEGE EMPLOYEES New jobs but also stress Cheers and fears meet work policy for international students By HANNAH ROWENA MONDIWA usinesses in British Colum- bia see the new interna- tional student work policy as an opportunity to fill vacant job postings. The food and restaurant indus- try has experienced a large labour shortage. Ian Tostenson, president and CEO of the British Colum- bia Restaurant and Food Services Association, welcomes the news of the federal government’s decision to remove off-campus work restric- tions for international students. “Our industry is about 30 to 35,000 people short in all positions in our restaurant industry through- out British Columbia, so this is going to help. It's not going to alle- viate the problem, but it's certainly going to allow us to schedule in more students to help us out, and we could solve the major labour short- age we have right now.” According to Statistics Canada, the unemployment rate in Canada is 5.2 per cent while the latest figures for B.C.’s unemployment rate is 4.2 per cent. There are currently 169,280 job vacancies in B.C. and over one million in Canada. Tostenson said that although the pandemic exacerbated the labour shortage in the restaurant and food industry, the main reason for a lack of workers is a change in demo- graphics. “We've had a lot of people leav- ing the industry just because they're getting older, especially in kitch- ens where people are retiring. We have an aging population in British Columbia,” Tostenson said. 2022 to Dec. 31, 2023, international students will have unlimited work hours during school. Teresa Brooks, associate director, international services at Langara Global, said that as the new policy removing work restrictions has yet to come into effect, it’s not yet clear how it will affect international students. “However, it is important to note that while the opportunity Statis- to gain valuable tics from “ : Canadian work the 2021 Sometimes I work 20 experience can Shows thay | owrsaweek, and I'm | °° =" eres 19 per cent devastated.” student's study of Cana- — PEDRO SORIANO RIBEIRO, LANGARA abroad _experi- dians are INTERNATIONAL STUDENT ence, focusing aged 65 on academic and older. This represents a 2.1 per cent increase in the 2016-2021 period. The Ministry of Immigra- tion, Refugees and Citizenship announced the policy change to deal with an on-going labour shortage in Canada. On Oct. 7, the Ministry of Immi- gration, Refugees and Citizenship announced a temporary lift on off- campus work restrictions for inter- national students. From Nov. 15, achievement must be the priority,” said Brooks. According to Studyinbe.com, British Columbia is home to nearly 188,000 post-secondary interna- tional students. Pedro Soriano Ribeiro, a first-year marketing management student from Brazil, welcomed the news about the new policy with caution. “Sometimes I work 20 hours a week, and I’m devastated. I have five courses and I know how brutal that can be,” Soriano Ribeiro said. Gokul Babu, a first-year post degree student in business admin- istration from India, also said he was concerned about the new policy. “In one case, it’s all good to have a full-time job but for some students, I guess... it feels hard to cope with both the job as well as the studies,” Babu said. Jenny Kwan, Member of Parlia- ment for East Vancouver and the NDP critic for immigration, refu- gees and citizenship, said the lifting of restrictions is long overdue. “It’s a tiny step forward in terms of opening up more recognition of students’ needs. But I think the policy was determined, not so much to meet the needs of the students, but rather to meet the needs of, you know, the industry and Canada’s economic needs.” Kwan said that despite the new policy there is still a lot of work to be done, including making the tempo- rary initiative permanent. Babu said he plans to increase his work hours but warns students to be careful about work and school balance. “I would suggest, students should not like compromise with their studies,” he said. Papers, please Toilet paper mess not going away soon By TOM ELEY Ithough students at Lang- A ara say campus washrooms are often littered with toilet paper, school washrooms are unlikely to dispense with paper products anytime soon. Collin Mills, an instructor in the department of geography and geol- ogy, was part of a project with student researchers tackling public washroom issues in Vancouver. According to his project, toilet paper remains a compli- cated issue when it comes to sustain- ability. “It is pretty hard to get rid of toilet paper. Someone once said that the paperless office is about as likely as the paperless bathroom,” Mills said. “Which means not very likely at all.” Students said they frequently find urine-stained seats and toilet paper over the floors in campus wash- rooms. Many blamed their fellow students for the mess. “They are not picking up the paper and putting it in the garbage,” said Harshpreet Kaur, a second-year science student. Kaur said the toilets can be clean at the start of the day, but as the day goes on, they can become dirty. Kevin Wang, a third-year biology student, said students are causing the issues. “People never flush the toilet. It is gross,” Wang said. Mills's students looked at what people in other parts of the world use in washrooms and found that water often replaces toilet paper for bath- room hygiene. “In Thailand ... the publicly acces- sible washrooms have what they call the ‘bum gun,” said Mills. The “bum-gun” is a spray used to wash and clean up after going to the bathroom. Installing bidets in Langara’s washrooms was one of the sugges- tions outlined in a report by Langara’s Sustainability Club. According to the report, the average person consumes 384 trees of bathroom paper and spends about $8,400 on toilet paper in a lifetime. Installing a bidet could help reduce costs. But toilet paper isn’t going anywhere. “A commercial bidet can be expen- sive, and that, too, for every toilet seat on campus,” said Ishan Malhotra, a member of the Sustainability Club.