You’d never know Windsor has the highest unemployment rate in Canada when you look at how local employers use the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. In a program that was designed to fill critical labour shortages, why are we now seeing temporary foreign workers in our homes, public education and health care institutions, manufacturing facilities, restaurants, and even strip clubs?

Documents obtained from the federal government under the Access to Information Act confirms that the Temporary Foreign Worker Program is mismanaged and provides employers in Windsor side door access to hire from outside of Canada’s labour pool with little to no regard for the program’s original purpose – filling critical job shortages on a short term basis only when Canadian workers can not be found.

In Windsor, from 2011 to 2014, there were roughly 500 employers using the program to fill over 900 jobs, lasting from 1 day to 5 years, ranging in value from $10.25 an hour up to over $100,000 per year.

While the majority of work was in fact temporary, with 517 of these jobs lasting just a few days or weeks, a startling amount of the employment was much longer with roughly 150 jobs lasting months, and over 200 lasting a year or more.

Just look at the attached documents to review the full scope and use of this program in Windsor.

There are temporary foreign workers from India and Mexico employed in computer programming and interactive media development in Windsor. Engineers from Bangladesh, Egypt and Japan – many of whom are here on several year terms. There are even a handful of retail managers from China, Egypt, India, and the United States.

Cheetah’s of Windsor and Leopard’s Lounge hire strippers from a dozen countries, such as Colombia, Estonia, and Latvia. Spago Pizzeria brought in an Albanian chef while the Caboto Club and La Zingara have hired Italian cooks.

Temporary foreign workers in Windsor for one or more years have an average salary of roughly $103,000 and average hourly wage of $20. If you average out live-in caregivers and strippers (the only low skilled groups with employment spanning multiple years), the wage goes up to $33.

There are hundreds of long term, well paying jobs in clerical, engineering, finance, office administration, computer programming, web design, and many more – which raises another question – doesn’t St. Clair College and the University of Windsor produce qualified graduates for these jobs every year?

As Windsor leads the nation in unemployment, hovering around 10 per cent, it is clear that workers are losing jobs to foreign workers in areas where there are no critical shortages. So what are we to do?

The Trudeau government has committed to restoring the Temporary Foreign Worker Program to its originally intended purpose of filling job shortages when absolutely no Canadian can be found – yet little has been mentioned of this in the ministerial mandate letters. In fact, the only mention of the program is to eliminate a $1,000 fee to hire caregivers from abroad.

If labour shortages exist in Windsor then we need to create pathways to citizenship for foreign workers, giving them the benefits of being a Canadian while allowing them to compete in our labour market. If the side door is not closed employers will be able to find skilled foreign workers willing to work for low wages, further depressing the wages of workers in Windsor.

The Trudeau government campaigned on closing the side door on temporary foreign labour and until that happens Windsor and its youth will continue to endure rising unemployment and low wages.

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Michael Baker

519-300-2042

mikebaker@hotmail.com

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Click below for the information released by Employment and Social Development Canada under the Access to Information Act.

A201500390-ESDC-ATIP-20150604-FV-GD