In a speech to BC’s business community on Thursday, BC Premier Christy Clark “accused federal politicians of “tragically misdirected” policies over the issue of temporary foreign workers”. She talked about how the amount of jobs in BC are increasing and as a result, a lot of workers are going to be needed which may mean relying on foreign workers because local workers can’t fill all the jobs.
This comes in backlash to the crackdown on the temporary foreign worker program that happened in June including many limitations to the program. The topic of the temporary foreign worker program is of interest to me as I have worked as a ski instructor for the past 2 years alongside many Australians and British people who rely on sponsored visas for their jobs. The ski hill I worked at hired people based on their qualifications for the job needed and their experience, not based upon their nationality. I know for this upcoming season, my ski hill is struggling to fill their jobs as not only is the Canadian demand not enough, there also isn’t the same experience and skill in the applications they have received that is required to fill the jobs. For this reason I agree with Christy Clark as there is a genuine need for more skill in Canada and if there are foreign workers who are more skilled than their Canadian counterparts I believe the skill should outweigh the nationality. Cutting back on foreign workers in Canada could result in a decrease in the Canadian economy due to too many unfilled jobs. Christy Clark stated “We 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,” and she talked about how instead of fixing the program the government should maybe think about changing the name: “Call them ‘potential new Canadians,’ because they’re coming here to help us build our country.” Foreign workers are coming here to add value to our jobs and to help increase the Canadian economy, they are interested in the Canadian way of life and the beautiful country we live in. For this reason we should be accepting of them into Canadian jobs and not push them away.