Ottawa wisely hits the brake on foreign temporary workers

At a time when 1.4 million Canadians are out of work, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives have finally been shamed into slamming the brakes on an out-of-control program that threatened their claim to be competent stewards of the economy. There were some 338,000 foreign workers in this country by the end of last year, a number that has tripled in the past decade.

Granted, some regions of Canada, including Alberta, are experiencing skills and labour shortages. But a rising chorus of critics accused the Conservatives of selling out Canadian workers by letting employers import cheap temporary labour, pushing down wages and working conditions in a race to the bottom. Even Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney felt moved to caution against an “over-reliance” on such workers at a time when unemployment is above the 7-per-cent mark, saying there’s a risk of holding down wage gains and impeding corporate efficiency.

Stung by the criticism, the government rolled out sweeping changes on Monday that it says will offer jobless Canadians a better chance at landing work, and will tighten controls against potential abuses. It’s a welcome, if grinding, shift of gears away from changes that the government brought in just last year.

As Harper promised in the March budget, Canadians invariably should get “the first chance at available jobs” in fields as diverse as the professions, the oil industry, construction, fisheries, services, tourism and farming. Temporary workers should be brought in only to plug an “absolute and acute” labour shortage, as he said recently. And Canadians should be trained to do the jobs eventually. That’s a far cry from what appears to have been going on until now.

The Tories have faced withering criticism over HD Mining International’s decision to hire hundreds of Mandarin-speaking workers from China for its British Columbia coal mine after deciding that no Canadian job seekers were qualified, and over the Royal Bank’s move to train cheaper offshore workers to replace some head office staff. In both cases Canadians felt shabbily treated.

Under the new regime, Canadians will be assured “first crack” at any jobs, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney promises. Employers will have to show they made a “good-faith effort” to recruit and train Canadians before they can get a permit to hire from abroad. This is designed to prevent employers from merely going through the motions.

Employers will also have to put forward a “solid plan” to move Canadian workers into those jobs “over time,” Kenney says. They will have to show that the program isn’t being abused to facilitate outsourcing. And higher fees will give employers an added incentive to hire locally.

In a major and welcome climbdown, Ottawa will now require employers to pay temporary workers at the prevailing rate, instead of as much as 15 per cent less. And only English and French will qualify as a job language requirement.

Finally, Ottawa promises to consult widely, including with organized labour, which remains skeptical, to ensure the new rules work.

There’s an admission in all this that the Conservatives have been, at best, asleep at the switch, casually approving temporary workers even as problems piled up. At worst, the government may have cynically encouraged businesses to use the program to drive down wages. Regardless, the new regime is promising to the extent that it provides a more level playing field. Now Ottawa needs to enforce it.

Original Article
Source: thestar.com
Author: Editorial