Foreign workers issue delays trade deals

2014/05/20 Leave a comment

The higher-end of Temporary Foreign Workers. But given that one of the original cases was in relation to foreign IT workers displacing Canadian IT workers at the Royal Bank, not an easy issue for the Government. Particularly given that in contrast to NAFTA and the upcoming CETA, India is a low-cost supplier of IT services:

While discussions have also been delayed in part because of India’s lengthy election cycle, the fact that foreign workers have emerged as a potential stumbling block has implications for other lucrative trade agreements that Canada hopes to realize. It remains to be seen whether the resounding victory by Narendra Modi, a pro-business Hindu nationalist who heads the Bharatiya Janata Party, will help Canada overcome the impasse.

Rentala Chandrashekhar, the president of the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), which represents India’s IT community, recently visited Ottawa to stress the negative impact Canada’s reforms are having on trade and the potential that further changes could make things worse for both economies.

Mr. Chandrashekhar, a former senior public servant with the Indian government, met with Immigration Minister Chris Alexander, senior officials with Employment Minister Jason Kenney’s department and Don Stephenson, the chief trade negotiator for the Canada-India talks.

“Most important is perception, the perception that the Canadian economy is becoming more closed,” Mr. Chandrashekhar told the Globe. “The perception that walls are being put up … [This] is not something that is very conductive to the kind of environment that you need for pushing forward the idea of a freer trade regime.”

Foreign workers issue delays trade deals – The Globe and Mail.

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TFW’s are just one piece of immigration puzzle – New Canadian Media

2014/05/15 Leave a comment

 

TFWs

My piece on Temporary Foreign Workers and the linkages to permanent residency and citizenship:

Over the past 10 years, permanent immigration levels and citizenship applications have largely remained stable. The only major growth that has occurred is for Temporary Foreign Workers, many at lower skill levels, most of whom do not have a pathway to permanent residency. Moreover, the pathway from permanent resident to citizen has also become harder, and will become even more so, undermining the overall Canadian model of immigration and citizenship.

Over reliance on anecdote and weakness in the evidence base have contributed to a number of these policy changes. Policy change is complex and the effects are only known after a number of years. It took four years before the flaws in the redesign of Temporary Foreign Workers became apparent. It will likely take that long to know whether the new “Express Entry” immigration approach works as intended. The full effect of changes to the Citizenship Act will only be known in about 10 years, given the increased residency and related requirements.

TFW’s are just one piece of immigration puzzle – New Canadian Media – NCM.

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Kenney defends job bank despite outdated postings

2014/05/14 Leave a comment

Yet another headache for the government in the context of Temporary Foreign Workers and the introduction of the “Express Entry” new immigration approach which will also use the Job Bank. To be fair, keeping such sites up-to-date is always a challenge:

The federal government will soon make enhancements to its online job bank amid revelations that hundreds of positions posted on the site have long since been filled, Employment Minister Jason Kenney said Monday.

“We are making improvements to the Canada Job Bank … we will be using new technological developments in the near future to ensure an even better matching of unemployed Canadians with available jobs,” Kenney said in the House of Commons.

The government will work with “private-sector web platforms” when provinces fail to send their own postings to the job bank, he added. Currently, most provinces and territories do so automatically.

The job bank is a critical component of Ottawa’s controversial temporary foreign worker program. Employers are required to post ads on the site seeking Canadian workers for four weeks before they’re able to apply to hire temporary foreign workers.

The government also relies in part on job bank data to determine what regions of the country are clamouring for labour.

But from customer service representatives in New Brunswick to food service supervisors in B.C. and RCMP clerks in Saskatchewan, many of the 110,000 jobs listed on the job bank are no longer available. A litany of postings are several months old; some have been on the site for more than a year.

Kenney defends job bank despite outdated postings.

In related Temporary Foreign Workers news, Minister Kenney’s refuses Quebec’s request for an exemption for the moratorium, and Minister Alexander makes one of his few public comments:

Kenney told the Commons the moratorium was imposed to protect Canadians who are looking for work.

The federal minister pointed out that 14 per cent of Quebec youth are unemployed as are 20 per cent of new arrivals to the province.

Ottawa announced the moratorium in late April after reports suggested the program was being abused by the food-service industry.

A spokesman for Quebec Immigration Minister Kathleen Weil said on the weekend the province has no problem with the program and that restaurants need temporary foreign workers to keep operating, especially in summer.

The moratorium has been widely criticized by industry groups, with Quebec’s restaurant association calling it “exaggerated and unreasonable.”

Earlier on Monday, federal Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander said the moratorium was imposed for “very good reasons.”

“There was abuse and we are absolutely committed to completing the review and the reform we have underway,” he said at an unrelated event in Montreal.

“And I can assure you and her (Weil) and Canadians across the country that when this program is relaunched, it will not be subject to abuse.”

He said the hiring of foreign temporary workers should be a “last resort.”

“There are young people across Canada…who are looking for permanent jobs and summer jobs and our first obligation as employers is to look to the domestic market.”

Temporary foreign worker ban: Kenney tells Quebec to hire unemployed youth

Lastly, commentary by Matt Gurney on the irony of the Quebec request:

But restaurant workers? It’s harder to make that case. If Canadians aren’t taking those jobs, the jobs probably aren’t paying enough. I’m sympathetic to the restaurant owners — the restaurant business is highly competitive, with razor-thin margins — but this is how capitalism works. Long-term jobs won’t adjust their prices to appropriate market-driven levels if there’s a gigantic foreign-worker-fed short circuit built into the process. Foreign workers when necessary to sustain and grow the economy, sure, but not foreign workers handing out the dessert menus as the default option.

Quebec is in an odd position here, and an ironic one. Despite the recent election of the Liberal party, and the attendant crushing defeat of the oft-xenophobic Parti Quebecois, the province still has a warranted reputation of being one of the less welcoming places in Canada with which to move. Even Canadian citizens, of the generically white ethnic background, can run into trouble for what language they speak. There are recent signs that this sad trend may slowly be moderating, but there’s still a very long way to go.

And while Quebec sorts out its discomfort with outsiders, it’s also insisting that it wants to retain access to a vast pool of foreigners to work in an industry in which they probably ought not to be working in the first place. “Send us some foreigners so we can hire them for service-sector jobs!” isn’t really something anyone would have expected to hear coming out of the province that was recently in an uproar about what civil servants could wear on their head or around their necks without getting binned, but here we are.

Quebec government really wants more foreigners. OK, then

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Canada must see immigration as a competitive edge – Royal Bank of Canada CEO

2014/05/13 Leave a comment

Strong message on immigration, diversity and inclusion from the CEO of the Royal Bank of Canada, Gordon Nixon:

Our diverse population is only an advantage to the extent we are inclusive. Full inclusion means everyone feels enabled to bring their perspectives, knowledge and experiences to the table. Diversity, together with inclusion, plays a central role in driving productivity, innovation and growth.

We are building the next phase in the growth of our great country in an era of economic interdependence, shifting demographics and wars for talent. A work force with global experience is a competitive advantage. International experience is an asset to business. Too often, we hear that newcomers with no Canadian experience would be hard to fit into the Canadian work force. In truth, international experiences relate directly to the modern Canadian context.

Business leaders – no matter the size of the company or the industry – should play an active part. A simple place to start is in guiding your company to increase diversity and to be inclusive. We all have and are impacted by systemic and unconscious biases; rather than acting as if they don’t exist, we must find ways to identify them and develop strategies to compensate for them.

Canada must see immigration as a competitive edge – The Globe and Mail.

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Jayson Myers: Building a better foreign workers program | National Post

2014/05/13 Leave a comment

From Jason Myers, CEO of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME) on Temporary Foreign Workers and some sensible recommendations (these are not fast food workers) to improve the program, including pathways to residency and implicitly citizenship:

We recommend that a new foreign skilled worker program be introduced, incorporating:

  • an improved national jobs bank that includes employment insurance claimants;

  • a broadly defined classification of skilled workers that’s based on industry needs, rather than on pre-specified qualifications;

  • an “above normal” wage threshold for temporary employment;

  • streamlined and consistently administered application and approval processes;

  • additional flexibility for employers located outside major urban centres, or in regions of rapid economic growth; and

  • improved pathways to residency, in order to give temporary foreign skilled workers better opportunities to become permanent contributors to the Canadian economy.

Jayson Myers: Building a better foreign workers program | National Post.

Meanwhile, Quebec wants an exemption from the federal moratorium.

Interesting that no cases of abuse or concern about Temporary Foreign Workers in food service industries, given Quebec’s overall higher unemployment rate. Quebec had about 44,000 foreign workers in 2012, about 13 percent of the Canadian total (Quebec’s percentage of Canada’s population is almost 24 percent):

“We are a bit worried about the impact of the moratorium on our restaurants and on our small and medium-sized businesses,” he said Sunday.

“We are ready to work with the federal government to tighten the rules of the program if need be.”

Weil is also planning to make the same case to Employment Minister Jason Kenney, who oversees the temporary foreign workers program, McMahon said.

A spokeswoman for Kenney said there are no immediate plans to lift the ban, in Quebec or anywhere else.

“Abuse of the temporary foreign worker program will not be tolerated,” Alexandra Fortier said in an email.

“Allegations of misuse will continue to be investigated and any employer found to have violated the rules will face serious consequences.”

Quebec wants exemption from temporary foreign worker moratorium on restaurants – The Globe and Mail.

Québec réclame la levée du moratoire sur l’embauche de travailleurs étrangers | Le Devoir

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Website maps businesses using temporary foreign workers in B.C. and Alberta

2014/05/09 Leave a comment

Interesting and innovative way to analyze and communicate Temporary Foreign Workers and their impact through mapping:

Of 511 Metro Vancouver businesses that received government authorization to recruit temporary foreign workers over a one-year period, 107 were restaurants, pubs or fast-food outlets — almost 21 per cent of the total. Everything from Megabite Pizza and Waves Coffee to Dead Frog Brewery and Doolin’s Irish Pub received approvals.

In Calgary, 299 of the 718 business that received authorizations in the same period were restaurants, pubs and fast-food outlets — 41 per cent. Those included a slew of Subway, Dairy Queen and many other franchises, as well as several mom-and-pop eateries.

“The majority of the people in those programs are not skilled workers working on construction projects where there’s a labour shortage,” Jim Sinclair, president of the B.C. Federation of Labour, said Wednesday.

“They’re simply being used as cheap labour in large urban areas where there’s already tens of thousands of people unemployed.”

Website maps businesses using temporary foreign workers in B.C. and Alberta.

The link to the map application:

NTFW Map

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Feds walking fine line on temporary foreign workers, say diaspora groups

2014/05/08 Leave a comment

One of the few articles I have seen with reactions from some community groups:

Several industry lobby groups, including Farmers of North America and the Canadian Restaurants and Foodservices Association, have publicly defended the program.

However, leaders of two community organizations serving target constituencies for the Conservative Party opposed widespread use of the program.

The expansion of the program under the Harper government is creating a two-tiered society in Canada, whereby foreigners are brought in but not afforded the same rights as other immigrants or citizens, said Jagdeep Perhar, president of the India Canada Association, in a phone interview.

“I think this is a fundamentally wrong approach,” he said.

“The government should adapt their policy to maybe bring less immigrants to the country, that is fine. But once the immigrants are in, then we should not discriminate,” he said.

Diaspora youth, like all Canadians, are facing trouble with unemployment, while temporary foreign workers continue to stream in, said Victor Wong, executive director of the Chinese Canadian National Council, in a phone interview.

“I think in the end when the government puts its jobs record on the line, I think people will see that it’s failed,” he said.

The government has alienated business owners and employees alike in the Chinese and other communities with its management of the program, he said.

“They’ve been trying to talk out of both sides of their mouth for six years now, and to just kind of get away with it, and now it’s blown up in their face,” he said.

Feds walking fine line on temporary foreign workers, say diaspora groups | Embassy – Canada’s Foreign Policy Newspaper.

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Dutch foreign minister praises Canada as an ‘immigrant society’

2014/05/08 Leave a comment

Nice reminder by the Dutch that despite the various controversies that emerge from time-to-time, Canada largely has it right in terms of immigration, integration and multiculturalism. European history and patterns of immigration (guest workers, often from former colonies) are vastly different to immigrant-based societies like Canada, Australia and the US, which encourage full participation and becoming citizens:

“I think it is mind-boggling that a huge nation like Canada, with all its diversities, with so many recent immigrants from all parts of the world, with all their different cultures, can maintain this level of social tranquility and integration of difference, acceptance of difference in this society,” Mr. Timmermans told a crowd at a Dutch Embassy and Centre for International Governance Innovation breakfast event at the Rideau Club on May 2.  …

“Still I think Canada has a lot to teach us on this front because we have begun to doubt whether our societies can handle diversity, and diversity has been attacked especially by the extreme right,” he said.

He said there’s been the re-emergence of an old notion in Europe of finding someone else to put the blame on.

“The second step always becomes slowly and gradually dehumanizing that group so that at some point it becomes acceptable to say that they should leave society,” he said.

“We in the Netherlands have reached that point that a politician says we could do with less people of a certain ethnicity in Dutch society.”

“I would have never thought this possible, but it happened,” he said.

Dutch foreign minister praises Canada as an ‘immigrant society’ | Embassy – Canada’s Foreign Policy Newspaper.

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Why Syrian refugees will thrive in Canada

2014/05/08 Leave a comment

Good piece by Ratna Omidvar and Dana Wagner of Maytree on the overall success and contribution by refugees, and advocating for quicker intake of the 1,300 Syrian refugees that Government has pledged to accept. They note that most refugees get jobs, learn either English or French, their new communities will support them, and they will give back.

Why Syrian refugees will thrive in Canada – The Globe and Mail.

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Temporary Foreign Workers Taking Jobs Where Canadians Available: HRSDC

2014/05/07 Leave a comment

Full-Time-EmploymentIf correct, this is not good news for the Government in its handling of the Temporary Foreign Workers program:

A cabinet minister in the Harper government was warned two years ago that jobs were going to temporary foreign workers even in areas where there were Canadians available to do them, according to internal documents.

In notes prepared for then-Human Resources Minister Diane Finley, HRSDC warned of a “disconnect between the Temporary Foreign Worker program” and Employment Insurance payouts.

“Evidence suggests that, in some instances, employers are hiring temporary foreign workers in the same occupation and location as Canadians who are collecting EI regular benefits,” the document stated.

It was evidently prepared by HRSDC ahead of a meeting between Finley and P.E.I. Innovation Minister Allan Roach in May, 2012.

Temporary Foreign Workers Taking Jobs Where Canadians Available: HRSDC.

Dec-1-TFWsFor a further illustration, an interesting analysis in Canadian Business on southwestern Ontario unemployment rates and foreign workers, contrasting youth and general unemployment rates and Temporary Foreign Workers:

The temporary foreign workers issue is just another example of why Canada needs to keep better labour market data. There may be very good economic reasons why the number of TFWs has doubled in Southwestern Ontario in the last decade, but without proper data there is no real way of knowing.

Next Why are so many temporary foreign workers in Southwestern Ontario

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