Federal Employment Minister Jason Kenney called a new moratorium on the fast-food industry's use of the temporary foreign worker program a "wake-up call" to employers that they should be taking a long, hard look across the country for Canadians to fill vacant jobs.I wonder if MacDonalds CEO John Betts still thinks that Kenney "knows his stuff from a business person’s perspective."
What Kenney is telling employers is, smarten up!
Because I'm afraid that one of the "perspectives" that employers unfortunately like about Temporary Foreign Workers is that they have no life here in Canada.
They have no kids taking hockey lessons, no daycare centre to get to before it closes, no spouse doing shift-work, no parents to drive to doctor appointments, no mortgage to pay, no lawn to mow, no "take your child to work" day. So the TFWs can work bizarre split shifts, they can come into work at a moment's notice, they're willing to work whatever overtime they can get, and they don't worry about whether their job has any kind of future.
Canadian employees, on the other hand -- and immigrants, too -- have a life outside of work. They quite reasonably expect their workplace will recognize this, and will occasionally accommodate its demands. They expect their employer to respect their families, and their communities. They say "no" to oddball shifts and excessive overtime.
Every now and then they even leave work to vote!
CFIB president Dan Kelley thinks Canadians don't have a work ethic. But what we do have is a life!
Immigrants, too, are trying to have careers here, wanting to bring their families with them and grow with their communities. In making it more difficult for immigrants to come here, the Harper Cons have let down Canada. More TFWs, nice people that they are, are not a substitute for citizens or prospective citizens who want to build their lives here.
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