By Mark Woollven, CKNW |
The Alberta Federation of Labour is calling out the Federal Liberal Government when it comes to a promised review of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.
The president of the AFL, Gil McGowan, says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau quietly broke their election promise to scale back and refocus the TFW program over the Canada Day long weekend.
By Mark Woollven, CKNW |
The Alberta Federation of Labour is calling out the Federal Liberal Government when it comes to a promised review of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.
The president of the AFL, Gil McGowan, says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau quietly broke their election promise to scale back and refocus the TFW program over the Canada Day long weekend.
He says the Prime Minister has written, “That the Temporary Foreign Worker Program was a mess, it was broken, and it flew in the face of Canadian values. So he promised a review, the implications were that the review would lead to the end of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program or at least a significant scale back.”
“Instead of scaling back the program, instead of refocussing it, what we saw was they backed away from a deadline that would have required employers to restrict the number of Temporary Foreign Workers that they have on their worksites to 10% of their workforce from 20%.”
McGowan says this is a move to appease hospitality employers who will continue to be able to staff their establishments using one fifth Temporary Foreign Workers.
“They asked that the government back away from this rule that would have required them to reduce the number of Temporary Foreign Workers from 20% to 10%. That was supposed to take effect this weekend of July the first, but even before the review process was done, the Trudeau Liberals have basically given these employers what they want.”
He says this move flies in the face of promises the Liberals made to Canadians on their way to government.
McGowan points to a 2014 article penned by then MP and now Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in which Trudeau says the current TFW program is damaging to the middle class, drives down wages, and displaces Canadian workers.