Canada's "immigration reforms" designed to screw Canadian workers

Thanks mainly to the CBC foregrounding the TFW abuse story that was always ignored by mainstream media, the Harperites have regrouped and refashioned their prized program to defuse the criticisms that it is designed to drive down the wages of Canadian workers.

Unctuous uber-turd Chris Alexander has made public the list of occupations that will qualify for "express entry" to Canada due to our imaginary labour shortage. If you heard his interview on CBC the other day, where after exhausting 101 ways to avoid answering a simple question he simply hung up the phone, you'll understand how he earned the "uber" for his turd badge.

But that's history. The interviewer was just trying to score some cheap points by exposing the vast gulf between Harper government rhetoric and the real world.

And while that is indeed a vast gulf, it's not the story we're following today.

Let's look at some of those 50 occupations that have alleged skills shortages.

Early childhood educators and assistants. Canada's community colleges crank out qualified ECE's by the tens of thousands. Most of them end up working for a wage that puts them well below the poverty line. That's why there's a shortage. Bringing in thousands of Filipinos helps who?

University professors and lecturers. Most freshly minted PhDs I know have trouble stitching together enough sessional work to even come close to the poverty line. THERE IS NO FUCKING SHORTAGE!!!

Investment dealers and brokers. Oh for fucks sakes! This can't be serious!? Virtually every investment house in Canada has been steadily downsizing at least since '08, if not before. Investment dealers need "express entry" to Canada because there is a shortage of qualified people?

Complete bullshit!

It goes on and on like that. There might be half a dozen occupations on that list of 50 that have legit shortages. Instrument technicians might be one; petroleum engineers might be another, and there might be a few more, but in every case these shortages could be readily remedied by educating Canadians who are unemployed or underemployed.

We don't need "workers" to fill a non-existent worker shortage. These programs are designed to drive down the wages and strip the benefits from Canadian workers, so that the multinational conglomerates who will be employing these workers can reduce their labour costs and increase their management bonuses.

What this list proves is that the Harper gang is not about "reforming" an anti-worker TFW program; they're about entrenching it and making things even worse for Canadian workers!

Harper's never-ending war on workers

When the RBC "temporary" foreign worker scam hit the fan a few months back, the Harper gang made a lot of noise about drafting "reforms" to the TFW plan. Not that anyone truly believes that these rabid anti-worker ideologues were serious about actually reforming anything, but politics being what it is, Harper & Co. found it necessary to at least blow some smoke up the nation's tailpipe on the matter.

Here's one way to avoid reforms; just fob the entire program off on the provinces or territories! Yes, the government of the Yukon now has carte blanche to bring in as many foreign workers as they'd like! The northern territory has a population of roughly 36,000, of whom over a thousand are unemployed. The Yukon also has one of the highest costs of living in Canada, which has resulted in relatively high wages being required to lure Canadians to the north.

The genius of the TFW program is that you can lure Mexicans and Guatemalans and Filipinos to the north for a lot less than you can get Canadians there. Canadians have come to expect certain amenities like indoor plumbing and a roof that doesn't leak and expect a paycheque that will make that happen.

The Yukon download is just a trial balloon, but if it goes unopposed there you can expect the Harper gang to download its responsibilities for workers onto larger territories and provinces.

In a country with 1.5 million unemployed and millions more underemployed there is no excuse for importing labour other than driving down the wages and living standard of Canadian workers. That's what Harper's corporate constituency wants and that's what they're getting.