RBC doesn’t owe us an apology; the Harper government does

Even if Gord Nixon, the president and CEO of RBC has thought it necessary to apologize to all of Canada, it is hard to find fault with his company’s recent efforts to replace Canadian employees with temporary foreign workers at a lesser rate of pay.

Businesses are profit-seeking institutions. When the federal government passes legislation that allows them to pay temporary foreign workers 15 per cent less than the prevailing wage, they will attempt to capitalize by pushing the limits of the law as far as they can.

If there is a problem with RBC’s actions, then, the fault must lie in the policy itself.

Since being introduced in 2012, the Conservatives’ revamped temporary foreign workers program has been criticized extensively, and for good reasons.

First, as the RBC experience has shown, it seems to promote the elimination of well-paying Canadian jobs.

Second, it incentivizes the expansion of a class of workers that are significantly more likely to be exploited by greedy, manipulative, or just plain ignorant employers.

And finally, it threatens the long-term effectiveness of Canadian multiculturalism. As has been seen all too often in Europe, countries that rely too heavily on temporary foreign workers are more likely to embrace an us-versus-them mentality when greeting new immigrants.

Some have argued that the solution is to ban temporary foreign workers altogether.

The problem with such an approach is that there are, and will always be, instances when a specific skill set is needed immediately – and for a limited time – by a Canadian employer without access to those skills from among the local population.

In such cases, hiring temporary foreign workers – who might not have any inclination to make Canada their permanent home – makes good financial sense.

The key, then, is to ensure that such workers are the exception.

And the best way to do that is to borrow a page from the Conservative government itself. Rather than allowing employers to pay temporary foreign workers 15 per cent less than the prevailing wage, Ottawa should require them to pay these workers a premium.

There would probably have to be exceptions, but the message to Canadian businesses, not to mention to the general public, would be clear: only hire temporary foreign workers when it is absolutely necessary; don’t assume that because they are neither from here nor staying that they can be exploited; and make sure that they feel welcome while they are offering a service that no Canadian seems able to provide.

Original Article
Source: thestar.com
Author:  Adam Chapnick