Letters
Nothing to do with cheap labour
August 25, 2016
To the Editor,
So here we go again with the immigration minister McCallum jetting around China recruiting workers for Canada. We are told there is a labour shortage in Canada and the quick answer is to import “temporary foreign workers” again. We witnessed the sad situation in the past of Canadians being told to train their replacements before being laid off in the IT sector, by such stalwart companies as the Royal Bank. This has nothing to do with cheaper labor.
In a recent study of vacant jobs around Canada, the vast majority were low skilled low paying work: agriculture, meat packing, hospitality. Simply increase the wages and most would be filled fairly quickly. Mind it would take a huge increase to get me gutting chickens all day long.
“Back in the old days,” companies trained their own workers to move up the ladder, now we seem to have ditched the ladder for a cliff. I still see the phrase “supply and demand” used in business circles. Not enough housing the price goes up, why does that not apply to workers pay cheques? Do we have to keep those at the bottom in poverty for the good of the country?
Paul Whittaker
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