XPost: can.politics, bc.politics, ab.politics   
   XPost: ont.politics   
   From: {~_~}@nyet.ca   
      
   The Harper Cons destroyed thousands of jobs in Canada by allowing   
   manufacturing companies to outsource those jobs to low-wage countries.   
   They then proceeded to destroy thousands more by allowing Canadian jobs   
   to be given to foreign workers they invited into Canada.   
      
   And now they're going to pay for putting corporate profits before   
   Canadians and their jobs . . . .   
   ________________________________________________   
     By The Canadian Press, Postmedia News April 28, 2014   
      
   Employment Minister Jason Kenney’s reputation under attack over   
   temporary foreign workers   
      
      
   OTTAWA — In the midst of a fresh eruption of abuse allegations   
   surrounding the government’s troubled temporary foreign worker program,   
   is Jason Kenney’s reputation as a capable taskmaster taking a beating?   
      
   The employment minister was on the defensive Monday in the House of   
   Commons, but he’s also under attack from business groups, labour unions   
   and — perhaps most troubling for Kenney with a federal election looming   
   — everyday Canadians who believe the Conservatives have made it easier   
   for foreigners to swipe their jobs.   
      
   “The minister has been responsible for the temporary foreign worker   
   program for the past six years,” NDP leader Tom Mulcair said during   
   question period.   
      
   Prime Minister Stephen Harper has publicly maligned companies who import   
   workers with “the intention of never having them be permanent and moving   
   the whole workforce back to another country at the end of a job,”   
   Mulcair continued.   
      
   “The prime minister has had this figured out for some time but why, in   
   the six years the minister has been taking care of the program, has he   
   never figured it out?”   
      
   “If and when there are abuses, we act clearly and quickly,” he said,   
   referring to the temporary ban he placed on restaurants last week   
   preventing them from accessing the temporary foreign worker program.   
      
   “We are about to come out with another phase of further reforms to   
   ensure that Canadians always and everywhere get the first crack at   
   available jobs, and that the program is only used as a limited and last   
   resort by employers.”   
      
   What a difference a few months makes.   
      
   In January, Kenney pledged another round of reforms as employers and   
   trade associations bemoaned the procedural red tape and lengthy delays   
   they say resulted from earlier rule changes enacted a year ago.   
      
   That initial crackdown came after the Royal Bank of Canada found itself   
   in hot water for replacing Canadian staff with temporary foreign workers.   
      
   Kenney suggested those changes, originally expected this month, could   
   include a limited fast track for workers in high-demand professions in   
   regions of the country with low unemployment.   
      
   But in the face of more allegations about employers, most of them   
   fast-food restaurants, Kenney is sounding a different tone. His office   
   has been inundated with complaints to its tiplines in recent weeks,   
   employment ministry officials say, and the overwhelming majority of them   
   involve restaurants.   
      
   Rather than easing restrictions, Kenney is now hinting even tougher   
   rules may loom.   
      
   That follows a difficult few days for the employment minister, during   
   which the C.D. Howe Institute released a study that said the influx of   
   temporary foreign workers over the past 10 years — from about 110,000 a   
   decade ago to 338,000 today — had served to hike the joblessness rate in   
   B.C. and Alberta.   
      
   CBC also released a damning audio recording of the CEO of McDonald’s   
   Canada, John Betts, denouncing the crackdown on temporary foreign   
   workers to franchisees and telling them that Kenney “gets it.”   
      
   “If Jason Kenney ‘gets it,’ that means he supports going out and hiring   
   all sorts of temporary workers,” said Liberal MP John McCallum, the   
   party’s immigration critic.   
      
   “If he ‘gets it,’ it means he’s not really wanting to enforce the   
   rules.”   
      
   In an interview, McCallum said the temporary foreign worker controversy   
   is resonating with all Canadians at a time of relatively high   
   unemployment — not just those in B.C. and Alberta, a Tory stronghold.   
      
   “It’s going to hurt them across Canada, not exclusively in the West,” he   
   said.   
      
   “When Canadians fear their jobs are being away by foreigners, or see   
   tearful waitresses on TV who lost their jobs after almost three decades   
   — that really resonates with Canadians at a time of relatively high   
   unemployment, when people are looking for their jobs or their kids are.   
   It’s something everyone directly relates to.”   
      
   Peter Woolstencroft, a political-science professor at the University of   
   Waterloo, agrees.   
      
   “This file is impregnated with bad optics; there are no good optics at   
   all,” Woolstencroft said.   
      
   “This is the kind of thing that angers ordinary folks; they understand   
   that they could go into work one day and despite working there for   
   years, be told they’re going to be replaced. He’s moved very quickly,   
   however, so he’ll at least be credited for that.”   
      
   An official in Kenney’s office defended the minister.   
      
   “We learned about abuses and we literally threw the book in ways we’ve   
   never thrown the book before,” said the official, who spoke on condition   
   of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly.   
      
      
   Video:   
   http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/national/Employment+Minister   
   Jason+Kenney+faces+Opposition+attack/9784773/story.html   
      
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