Mark Carney Was Right: Cheap Foreign Labour Hurts Canadians
Ottawa, ON – Today, the Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner, Conservative Shadow Minister for Immigration, released the following statement:
“‘One doesn’t want an over-reliance, certainly, on temporary foreign workers for lower-skilled jobs, which prevent the wage adjustment mechanism from making sure that Canadians are paid higher wages, but also so that firms improve their productivity as necessary.’
“That was what Mark Carney told a Parliamentary Committee in 2013.
“But this week, after Conservatives demanded the end to the wage-suppressing, opportunity-stealing, worker-abusing TFW program, Mark Carney instead chose to defend corporate conglomerates who support this program that harms Canadian workers and youth.
“Despite previously saying that Canada should not over rely on Temporary Foreign Workers, Carney is on track to issue the most permits in a single year. 105,000 TFW permits were already issued in the first half of the year, despite 106,000 Canadians losing their jobs in the past 2 months.
“The latest employment numbers show this summer was the worst for student unemployment, as the youth unemployment rate for returning students rose to the highest since the Great Recession (excluding the first year of the pandemic).
“Meanwhile, the overall number of unemployed Canadians continues to climb, increasing by 34,000 to 1.6 million in August. The unemployment rate has now reached its highest since May 2016, outside of COVID.
“Canadians are also struggling to compete for the few jobs that are available. The percentage of those unemployed in July who found work in August was 8.1 percent lower than the pre-pandemic average.
“As Canadian youth and workers faced crushing unemployment this summer, which Mark Carney can they expect this fall? The Carney who admitted that Temporary Foreign Workers drive down wages and harm productivity?
“Or worse, the Carney who knows the disastrous effects of flooding the market with cheap labour, but continues to bow down to large multinationals abusing our immigration system to pad their bottom line, at the expense of Canadian workers and youth.
“Canadian workers can’t afford an immigration system that drives up unemployment and keeps wages low; Mark Carney said it himself. It’s time to buy Canadian and hire Canadian by ending the Temporary Foreign Worker Program for good.”