Dokumento detalye

2014-02-09

Joseph Maloney

Edmonton Journal

Some businesses have complained about the tougher rules in force since the start of the year governing the federal temporary foreign workers program. They need to give their heads a shake.

While they might have caused some inconvenience, the Conservative reforms of the program have actually brought it much closer to its original intent: to help Canadian companies faced with serious labour shortages.

By providing enough workers to tide employers over during temporary peaks, the program could even help save Canadian jobs by keeping projects moving that would otherwise stall.

The program got a deservedly bad reputation when stories circulated about abuses by companies that used it as a cheap labour pool and a way to exploit both non-Canadians and their own Canadian workers. Shady operators would go so far as to house the foreign workers in buildings they owned themselves, charging exorbitant rents for squalid living conditions.

But the tough new regulations should help to put those episodes behind us.

The temporary foreign workers program is not for companies that simply want to hire cheap labour to work in fast-food outlets. It’s for industries where there is a real need for specialized workers who simply aren’t available in Canada.

My own organization, the boilermakers union, has faced two short periods every year for the past few years where our industry has been critically short of the specialized workers who are members of our union.

These peak times occur during the regular shutdown and maintenance periods of the large natural-resource projects on which we work. Our members safely shut down these complex facilities, then do inspections and make repairs. At the end of the process, our members safely start up the facilities again.

You can’t hire just anybody for this work. A boilermaker has to go through a four-year apprenticeship program, which includes academic and practical training. Our particular apprenticeship program is delivered by our union, in partnership with provincial governments and learning institutions across Canada.

We train hundreds of apprentices every year and we want to train more. But increasing the number of places available involves negotiations with 10 provincial governments and multiple colleges, which need classroom space and facilities to accommodate new students. Even if we could immediately double the capacity of our program, the new boilermakers wouldn’t be available for four years.

Couple rising demand and a long apprenticeship program with the increasing retirement among our members in the next decade, and you have a classic recipe for a shortage of these skilled workers.

That’s why our union has been using the temporary foreign program to hire specialized welders for periods of up to four weeks in spring and fall.

Why should a union be using the temporary foreign worker program?

Out of self-interest, we’re protecting our members’ jobs. If we don’t have enough people to handle our peak periods, projects will be delayed and we’ll lose work.

From the industry’s viewpoint, delays in maintenance could cost hundreds of millions of dollars. The loss of that much economic activity has a ripple effect through our communities.

So we embrace the program, but with caveats.

First — and this has been reflected in the tighter regulations — the temporary workers are paid exactly the same as our own members, including benefit accounts that give them equivalent pension and health-care coverage. We’re not providing a pool of cheap labour.

Second — and this is also reflected in the new rules — we’ve never charged commissions on the work we find for our temporary foreign workers, nor do we charge them for their transportation and accommodation. We have heard too many stories of unscrupulous labour brokers and the almost snakehead-like way they exploit these workers.

In the not-too-distant future, we may not need temporary foreign workers. We’re working to expand our apprenticeship program and we’re recruiting new apprentices. Our trade provides an excellent career choice for young Canadians.

In the meantime, our union’s temporary foreign worker program is continuing to do what it’s supposed to. On the whole, we’re pleased to see the government taking cues from programs, ours and others’, which operate honestly and for the benefit of Canadians.

Joseph Maloney is international vice-president of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers.

© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal

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