{"id":27781,"date":"2014-10-03T21:31:51","date_gmt":"2014-10-03T13:31:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=27781"},"modified":"2014-10-03T18:52:13","modified_gmt":"2014-10-03T10:52:13","slug":"b-c-premier-chides-federal-overhaul-of-temporary-foreign-worker-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/10\/03\/b-c-premier-chides-federal-overhaul-of-temporary-foreign-worker-program\/","title":{"rendered":"B.C. premier chides federal overhaul of temporary foreign worker program"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Christy<\/a>
Christy Clark. Photo by kris kr\u00fcg \/ Flickr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

VANCOUVER\u2014British Columbia Premier Christy Clark has accused federal politicians of \u201ctragically misdirected\u201d policies over the issue of temporary foreign workers, as she pushes for the thousands of skilled labourers needed for her envisioned liquefied natural gas industry.<\/p>\n

Clark took a bold stand in a speech to the province\u2019s business community Thursday, just ahead of her government\u2019s return to the legislature and planned introduction of new LNG laws.<\/p>\n

She told the Vancouver Board of Trade luncheon that as federal election campaigning unfolds, leaders in Ottawa must stop playing politics over the controversial program.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should not think about people who come from across the world to British Columbia to work as being something less than the rest of us,\u201d she said, after laying out her Liberal government\u2019s priorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo my advice to federal politicians is this: If you want to fix the temporary foreign workers program, maybe they should start with changing the name.<\/p>\n

\u201cCall them \u2018potential new Canadians,\u2019 because they\u2019re coming here to help us build our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The premier added her voice to other western leaders critical of the federal government\u2019s program overhaul, arguing new rules are too onerous for provinces facing genuine labour shortages.<\/p>\n

In June, Federal Employment Minister Jason Kenney laid out plans to limit how many foreign workers can be hired by large- and medium-sized companies. Kenney also included tougher penalties for companies found in violation of the rules and ordered inspections to deter abuses.<\/p>\n

Alberta Premier Jim Prentice said last week that labour policy will top his agenda when he gets his first meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper.<\/p>\n

The B.C. Liberals also want to mitigate an expected dearth of labour, which will only grow larger if their LNG plans are successful.<\/p>\n

Clark said her government is attempting to re-engineer secondary and post-secondary programs to ensure young people are properly trained for skills-intensive work. But even wooing workers from other provinces will not be enough to meet the demand, she warned the gathering. The only option will be to look overseas, she said.<\/p>\n

According to the federal immigration department, the temporary foreign workers program is meant to help employers fill \u201cshort-term gaps\u201d in the labour market.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost temporary foreign workers are limited to working in Canada for four years before having to return to their home country,\u201d states the Citizenship and Immigration Canada website.<\/p>\n

It says such workers would have the opportunity to apply for permanent residence using other programs, like the provincial nominee program.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not clear how Clark\u2019s comments square with the temporary nature of the program.<\/p>\n

She told reporters after her speech she couldn\u2019t give figures on what proportion of the economy will need to rely on temporary workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact is that as we\u2019re building (LNG), there\u2019s going to be a spurt in the number of workers that are required. Those jobs will be temporary in nature,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve done some work on estimating what that might look like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked for specifics about the discrepancy, Clark\u2019s office failed to provide a direct response.<\/p>\n

A B.C.-based immigration lawyer said he\u2019s impressed with the premier\u2019s passion and hopes she follows through on finding a labour solution.<\/p>\n

Richard Kurland said B.C. already has one of the best provincial nominee programs in Canada, but trails behind when it comes to selecting economic immigrants.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a genuine need for temporary foreign workers,\u201d he said, while noting that taking a stand could come at a political cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe premier has to have the political courage to be able to say \u2018No\u2019 for foreign workers that are wanted by big business and for saying \u2018Yes\u2019 to foreign workers who are not wanted by the labour unions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VANCOUVER\u2014British Columbia Premier Christy Clark has accused federal politicians of \u201ctragically misdirected\u201d policies over the issue of temporary foreign workers, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":24785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,1145,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-headline","category-immigration","mauthors-tamsyn-burgmann","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}