A representative of the Canadian Meat Council says the federal government's decision to keep the cap on the number of temporary foreign workers at company can hire is far from responding to the needs of the meat industry.

The government planned to drop the cap to 10 per cent overall as of July first, but last week changed its mind, keeping the cap at 20 per cent for employers who accessed the program prior to June 2014, while all employers after that mark are subject to a 10 per cent cap.

Ron Davidson says this is good for a very small number of companies, but the labour shortage in Canada's meat processing sector is much bigger.

"When the meat industry is unable to function at capacity, it means... we buy fewer animals, we have lower production, we have lower value-added, we have lower exports, we have reduced competitiveness, and frankly there's fewer jobs because... not only are the jobs in the meat-processing plants are affected, but the jobs in wider community are affected also," Davidson says.

Earlier this year it was estimated there are about 1000 job vacancies in meat processing plants across Canada.