By Randall Palmer
OTTAWA, April 29 (Reuters) – The Canadian government was set
to announce tighter rules on Monday to prevent employers from
using its temporary foreign worker program to squeeze Canadians
out of jobs, acting after two high-profile cases tarnished the
program’s reputation.
Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Human
Resources Minister Diane Finley have scheduled a news conference
for Monday afternoon to announce reforms to the program, which
the Conservative government was expected to present to
Parliament in its budget implementation bill on Monday
afternoon.
“While Canada is experiencing significant skills shortages
in many sectors and regions, this government believes that
Canadians must always have first crack at job opportunities when
they become available,” said Stephen Lecce, spokesman for Prime
Minister Stephen Harper.
“The government is moving quickly and taking action to
reform the temporary foreign worker program to ensure that
Canadians are given the first chance at available jobs.”
Despite 7 percent unemployment nationally, in some areas and
in some professions there are labor shortages, and Canadian
employers are allowed to bring in foreign workers if the
employers can demonstrate that they cannot find Canadians to do
the work.
The program was designed mainly to bring in cheap
agricultural workers but it has expanded rapidly to fill
shortages elsewhere, both high-skilled positions in the booming
resource sector and low-skilled jobs such as servers at the
country’s ubiquitous Tim Hortons coffee shops.
The program exploded into the news this month with word that
Canada’s largest bank, Royal Bank of Canada, was using
temporary foreign workers hired by U.S. outsourcing firm iGate
, effectively to replace existing staff.
In an open letter, RBC Chief Executive Gord Nixon
subsequently apologized for not being more sensitive to Canadian
employees. But he also said the bank had complied with
regulations, and iGate said its hiring practices were fully
compliant with Canadian law.
The program also came under the spotlight with word last
year that a majority Chinese-owned company had listed Mandarin
as a language requirement for 201 jobs at the Murray River coal
mine in the interior of British Columbia.
The company involved is HD Mining International Ltd, in
which China’s Huiyong Holdings Ltd holds a 55 percent stake,
Canada’s Dehua Lvliang International Mines Group Inc 40 percent
and an unnamed party 5 percent.
HD Mining said last year it had tried to hire locally but
had been unable to find people with the skills to operate the
specialized mining equipment, currently used in China, that will
be used at the Canadian mine.
The United Steelworkers union has challenged the idea that
HD Mining could not find Canadian workers, and said it was too
dangerous for miners who do not understand English well to
operate in a mine that requires compliance with extensive
English-language safety regulations.
A Canadian official said one change to the program would
require employers to advance a plan for transition to Canadian
employees before permission would be granted to bring in foreign
workers.
This would include plans for recruiting, training and
keeping Canadian workers.
(Editing by Peter Galloway)
