Foreign students withdrawing from programs. Tourists cancelling their trips. Foreigners not being able to visit their loved ones here — even in times of family emergencies.

As a strike by foreign service workers drags on, its impact is being felt from coast to coast by the tourism and education sectors , as well as by people worldwide who need visas to come to Canada.

Despite an offer issued last week by the Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers for a binding arbitration, Treasury Board President Tony Clement has not budged to the union’s demands.

On Monday, Clement’s press secretary Matthew Conway said the minister was still reviewing the union’s offer as the deadline looms by noon Tuesday. If the government rejects the offer, the disruption can be dragged on indefinitely.

“Our government will always put the interests of taxpayers first. We will continue to bargain in good faith,” Conway said in an email to the Star.

Although official statistics are not available by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the union representing the 1,350 foreign affair officials in trades, diplomatic relations and immigration services said its job action has already made an impact.

According to the union, the outputs of travel visas at targeted visa posts in China, India, Brazil, Mexico and the Philippines are down by 65 per cent since June, when the union shifted its focus to operations with high volumes of visa applications from tourists, students and foreign workers.

Globally, said union president Tim Edwards, the number of all visas issued, including those for permanent residents, has dropped by 25 per cent, with the overall backlog growing by 5 per cent a week.

Both the tourism and education industries urge the government and union to resolve the dispute as soon as possible.

The Tourism Industry Association of Canada estimates the job action will put one-third of all the bookings from key emerging markets such as China, India, Brazil and Mexico at risk, costing the industry at least $280 million in damages.

The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada also warns that students have already withdrawn from language programs and other prep courses. The strike could put a dent on the $7.7 billion industry and hurt the education of 105,000 foreign students.

Some post-secondary institutions have extended registration deadlines for foreign students while others have planned to allow deferrals of admissions to January.

The University of Toronto, for example, has developed a visa tracking system to follow up with their foreign students to see if they can get their visas on time for orientation. At York University, the deadline of arrival for foreign students has been extended for a week to Sept. 15.

“Right now, foreign students are at a point they have to decide where they are going this fall. The concern is if they can’t get the visa to Canada, they are going to choose another country,” said Gail Bowkett, AUCC’s director of international relations. “If we lose them now, we will lose them for four years.”

The labour dispute centres on Ottawa’s refusal to close the wage gap — ranging from $3,000 to $14,000 – between foreign affairs staff and their counterparts in similar line of work such as government lawyers, economists and policy analysts. Closing the gap would cost Ottawa $4.2 million.

Toronto immigration lawyer Max Berger said the revenue loss to Canada as a result of the strike will exceed the cost to meet the union’s demands.

“This is not like the garbage worker or TTC strike where the public sees garbage piled up and traffic delayed,” said Berger. “All these (visa) applicants are overseas and the public won’t see anything. But eventually, the financial damages to Canada will be striking.”

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A breast cancer survivor, Edna Aldovino has tried to get her son to see her in Toronto since she was diagnosed with cancer in her liver earlier this year. Her son applied for an emergency visitor visa in Manila June 18 but is still waiting for a response.