Give Canucks first crack at jobs

By ELIZABETH THOMPSON, NATIONAL BUREAU

The federal government should adopt a "Canadians First" policy and cut the number of temporary foreign workers allowed during the economic downturn, a Liberal senator said yesterday.

If a business absolutely can't find a Canadian and must bring in a temporary foreign worker, that business should have to pay $500 a month into a fund to train Canadians to do those jobs in the future, Sen. Pierrette Ringuette said.

In an interview with Sun Media, Ringuette said her call for a "Canadians First" policy follows the news this week of job losses in northern Ontario.

FOREIGN WORKERS
"I was looking at the layoffs of the 700 miners in Sudbury and I was thinking there are a lot of foreign workers working in the mines in northern Alberta and northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba and maybe our Canadians could do a very good job there."

On Tuesday, Ringuette called for the government to "halt" the foreign workers program.
"It would cost the government zero dollars to bring back a Canadians first for jobs policy," she told senators. "We must reconsider that during this current fiscal situation, we are providing foreign workers with visas to work in Canada while Canadians are
seeking jobs."

INTOLERANCE
Yesterday, however, she called for a "review" of the policy. "If the issue is not revised, I think that it could certainly increase a certain intolerance," she said. NDP MP Olivia Chow also suggested that tensions could rise if Canadians lose their jobs while temporary foreign workers remain. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney expects the number of temporary foreign workers to drop this year.

"The temporary foreign workers and the provincial nominee programs are based on concrete job offers and so we fully anticipate that the intake of people in those streams, temporary workers and provincial nominees, will probably decrease, perhaps significantly," Kenney said.

grumpy old man wrote:

By ELIZABETH THOMPSON, NATIONAL BUREAU

The federal government should adopt a "Canadians First" policy and cut the number of temporary foreign workers allowed during the economic downturn, a Liberal senator said yesterday.

If a business absolutely can't find a Canadian and must bring in a temporary foreign worker, that business should have to pay $500 a month into a fund to train Canadians to do those jobs in the future, Sen. Pierrette Ringuette said.

In an interview with Sun Media, Ringuette said her call for a "Canadians First" policy follows the news this week of job losses in northern Ontario.

FOREIGN WORKERS
"I was looking at the layoffs of the 700 miners in Sudbury and I was thinking there are a lot of foreign workers working in the mines in northern Alberta and northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba and maybe our Canadians could do a very good job there."

On Tuesday, Ringuette called for the government to "halt" the foreign workers program.
"It would cost the government zero dollars to bring back a Canadians first for jobs policy," she told senators. "We must reconsider that during this current fiscal situation, we are providing foreign workers with visas to work in Canada while Canadians are
seeking jobs."

INTOLERANCE
Yesterday, however, she called for a "review" of the policy. "If the issue is not revised, I think that it could certainly increase a certain intolerance," she said. NDP MP Olivia Chow also suggested that tensions could rise if Canadians lose their jobs while temporary foreign workers remain. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney expects the number of temporary foreign workers to drop this year.

"The temporary foreign workers and the provincial nominee programs are based on concrete job offers and so we fully anticipate that the intake of people in those streams, temporary workers and provincial nominees, will probably decrease, perhaps significantly," Kenney said.

I think a huge part of the problem is most Canadians won't work certain jobs. Despite years of unemployment certain jobs are beneath some people.

Goth_chic wrote:At my husbands workplace most machinists are Canadian or German.