Temporary foreign workers vital as BC workers take resource jobs: CFIB

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Would you rather work at a fast food restaurant, clean dirty hotel rooms, or be in a high-paying resource job?

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business says more British Columbians are choosing the oil and gas industry, making our economy dependent on temporary foreign workers.

President Dan Kelly says in rural areas of BC, almost every Canadian is employed in the resource sector, leaving employers unable to fill vacancies. He says the Temporary Foreign Worker program gets a bad rap, but argues it’s actually essential to keep business going.

“Lower skilled jobs in quick service restaurants, working in a grocery store, doing cleaning in a hotel room… the labour force for some of those roles is really drying up,” says Kelly.

That’s leaving employers frustrated, according to Kelly. “To find somebody that’s willing to clean a hotel room for eight hours a day is pretty near impossible. Canadians don’t want these jobs. If we don’t want these jobs ourselves — and perhaps we don’t want our kids to do these jobs — then who is going to do them?”

As for criticism the program is used to find employees willing to work long hours for less money, Kelly says that’s simply not the case.

“I don’t think that there’s any evidence that suggests the Temporary Foreign Worker program is being used to depress wages because if you look at the responsibilities of the employer, they’re massive. There are huge delays in using the program to finally get somebody into your workplace, massive bureaucratic and application costs associated with new fees to government.”

He adds pay is based on industry averages, not minimum wage, and employers are responsible for transportation to and from Canada as well as subsidized housing.

Kelly claims the program even protects Canadian jobs as businesses may have to shut down if they can’t find people to fill lower-level positions. He says there aren’t a lot of Canadians who are losing jobs to temporary foreign workers, and for those who do, there may be other issues to blame.

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