What is Good for Tim Horton’s Is Often Not Good for Canada

Written by Paul Fromm

Sunday, 16 December 2012 01:15

What is Good for Tim Horton’s Is Often Not Good for Canada *Canadian employers and some governments continue to whip up hysteria that Canada has a worker shortage. This, they claim, will increase dramatically over the next decade. However, even a quick glance at what is going on should make any sensible person skeptical of these claims. * *Tim Horton’s is one of the employers taking advantage of the hysteria. Between 2007 and 2012, it received permission to bring close to 15,000 Temporary Foreign Workers (TFW’s) to Canada. Many other employers have done the same thing. Together, Tim Horton’s and other employers were allowed to bring in about 400,000 TFW’s in 2012. * *The big question that has to be asked is this: Was this good for Canada? Here are a number of important things that have to be considered :* *(1) Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker program has to be monitored much more carefully and limited to a tiny number of occupations in order to prevent TFW’s from over-staying­-as they have in other countries. The fact that 400,000 Temporary Foreign Workers are now employed here indicates that our government will have serious difficulty in ensuring that these workers leave Canada when their contracts expire. For example, according to Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, Tim Horton’s coffee and doughnut shops received permission to import 14,195 workers between January 1, 2007 and August 31, 2012, a number that will probably increase to 15,000 by the end of 2012. This number will shock most Canadians even though it is a small part of the total number of TFW’s. But the point is that many similar fast-food outlets and like businesses are doing the same thing. Together, they constitute a significant percentage of the TFW’s allowed to work here. The big question is this : Why have employers like this been allowed to import so many workers to industries that are probably of little, if any, benefit to Canada?* *(2) Like Canada’s regular immigration program, Canada’s TFW program is being used to flood the labour market and to cause wage stagnation or wage depression. Most of the Tim Horton’s TFW’s (10,888) came from the Philippines. It is likely that these Filipinos are displacing Canadians who are looking for entry level jobs. It is also likely that the Filipinos hope to stay in Canada, are unskilled, and will compete for jobs with unskilled Canadians. Such low-wage jobs which will not pay for the services these people will absorb.* *(3) Most of the countries from which Canada is taking TFW’s are countries such as the Philippines where high unemployment is entrenched and where people are desperate for any job. In the 2007 to 2012 period, the countries which sent the second and third highest number of TFW’s to Tim Horton’s were Mexico (565) and India (248), also bastions of unemployment and low wages. Less significant source countries were Jamaica (112), Ukraine (84), Sri Lanka (62), Nepal (38), Pakistan (37), El Salvador (37) and Fiji (34). These countries are not known as world models for working people. The strangest source country was North Korea which sent seven TFW’s. We use the word “strange” because North Korea is an impoverished police state which does not allow its people to leave.* *(4) Our intake of TFW’s is not helping Canada. According to Statistics Canada, our national unemployment rate fell slightly in November, but it remains almost institutionalized around 7.2%. According to a number of critics, the real unemployment rate is much higher. In particular, the youth unemployment rate is officially around 14%, but it too is under-estimated and is probably well over 20%. Nobody in any country should ever have to ask whether employers and governments have a responsibility to employ their own citizens and to ensure that citizens are not treated as disposables. But in Canada, the shameless, corrupt behaviour of many employers and of governments has shown that the question has to be asked. * *(5) In order to maintain Canada’s high TFW intake, employers and our governments have engaged in deceit. For example, in the past month in British Columbia, both employers and the provincial government argued that Canada had to import Mainland Chinese miners because Canada supposedly did not have any miners qualified to do those jobs. The uproar that followed has revealed that Canada does have miners able to do those jobs. If it doesn’t have enough, it can train them. In spite of the deceit practiced by both Mainland Chinese mine owners and the B.C. government, another truth has come out : that the Mainland Chinese owners of the mines intended to pay the Mainland Chinese miners significantly less than they would have been required to pay Canadian miners. This was the real reason for importing Mainland Chinese TFW’s. * *(6) The Chinese TFW miner incident has revealed the age-old problem of using labour from China and other over-populated, low-wage countries : such labour has always arrived at the expense of Canadian workers. In China’s case, the damage required the Canadian government to enact Head Taxes and a Chinese Labourer Exclusion law to correct the messes that low-wage labour businesses created. * *Like in-sourcing Chinese labourers to Canada 100+ years ago, out-sourcing jobs to China in the past 20 years, has been a disaster for workers in most western countries. China has used western out-sourcing to make billions. To add insult to injury, it has been taking the billions it has made on its low-wage labour and used it to go on a massive, world-wide, resource-buying spree. * *In dealing with China on in-sourcing TFW’s and issues like China’s purchase of Canadian energy giant Nexxen, Canada should have reflected on the damage done by both out-sourcing and in-sourcing and then asked one key question : Would China have allowed Canada to buy a part of China? The answer is a clear “NO!!” Therefore, it was foolish for our government to have just allowed China to buy Canadian energy giant Nexxen and its oil lands in Canada.* *What is good for Tim Horton’s (and many other businesses) is often not good for Canada. **(Immigration Watch Canada, , *Posted on December 7, * 2012)*

 

Turkish Delight

Written by Paul Fromm

Friday, 14 December 2012 05:27

*CRIME WATCH* ** ** ***Turkish Delight* ** ** "When Reha and *Ecehan Ozcelik* landed at Montreal’s Trudeau airport on Sept. 17, they they told the border officer who questioned them they were permanent residents of Canada and lived in Montreal. And, yet, they couldn’t answer basic questions about the city where they claimed to reside. [image: Photo: CRIME WATCH Turkish Delight "When Reha and Ecehan Ozcelik landed at Montreal’s Trudeau airport on Sept. 17, they they told the border officer who questioned them they were permanent residents of Canada and lived in Montreal. And, yet, they couldn’t answer basic questions about the city where they claimed to reside On Wednesday, the Canada Border Services Agency announced the Court of Quebec had fined the Turkish couple $120,000 for immigration fraud. ... The hefty penalty is the first to be trumpeted by the government since Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced on Sept. 10 the government was investigating thousands of people suspected of residency fraud. [That is], newcomers suspected of maintaining no more than a fictitious presence in Canada. After arriving as immigrants, they return to their home countries. But they try to convince Canadian immigration authorities they have been living in Canada all the while. ... The CBSA has been paying closer attention to some permanent residents when they return to Canada from abroad. Officers are quizzing them to make sure they are familiar with Canada, and looking for indicators of fraud, such as cheat sheets that some carry to help them fake their way through immigration screening. ... Mr. Kenney said last month his department had identified more than 10,000 people suspected of committing residency fraud. Nearly 5,000 hold permanent resident status and 'have been flagged for additional security should they attempt to enter Canada or obtain citizenship,' he said. Another 3,100 are naturalized Canadians who are now being stripped of their citizenship for residency fraud, he said. An additional 2,500 cases have been flagged for 'concerns,' the minister added. Many of those involved in the scams are living in the Middle East and are either unwilling to leave lucrative overseas jobs or want an escape hatch in the event of instability in their home countries, according to government documents. In effect, they want the benefits of status in Canada but don’t want to actually live in Canada. [Cost to taxpayers to evacuate Canadians of Convenience from Lebanon in 2006 - $100-million. The new protocols may all sound very tough, but typically, we fall at the first hurdle:] Court records show that on Sept. 19 and 21, the Ozceliks pleaded guilty and were fined $30,000 for each count — a total of $120,000. In addition, they could be stripped of their permanent resident status and removed from Canada. 'Normally, if we prove that there’s a failure to respect the residency obligation, a person can or might lose his permanent residency and be removed afterwards,' [Veronique Lalime, CBSA spokeswoman for Quebec] said." (National Post, October 3, 2012) What part of "cheat" and "fraud" do we not get? Are we really so desperate for immigrants that we would seriously consider giving convicted scamsters a second chance?] Like <http://www.facebook.com/frederick.fromm.3#> · · Share<http://www.facebook.com/ajax/sharer/?s=2&appid=2305272732&p%5B0%5D=100004687473766&p%5B1%5D=126388> On Wednesday, the *Canada Border Services Agency* announced the *Court of Quebec* had fined the Turkish couple $120,000 for immigration fraud. ... The hefty penalty is the first to be trumpeted by the government since *Immigration Minister Jason Kenney* announced on Sept. 10 the government was investigating thousands of people suspected of residency fraud. [That is], newcomers suspected of maintaining no more than a fictitious presence in Canada. After arriving as immigrants, they return to their home countries. But they try to convince Canadian immigration authorities they have been living in Canada all the while. ... The *CBSA* has been paying closer attention to some permanent residents when they return to Canada from abroad. Officers are quizzing them to make sure they are familiar with Canada, and looking for indicators of fraud, such as cheat sheets that some carry to help them fake their way through immigration screening. ... *Mr. Kenney said last month his department had identified more than 10,000 people suspected of committing residency fraud*. Nearly 5,000 hold permanent resident status and 'have been flagged for additional security should they attempt to enter Canada or obtain citizenship,' he said. Another 3,100 are naturalized Canadians who are now being stripped of their citizenship for residency fraud, he said. An additional 2,500 cases have been flagged for 'concerns,' the minister added. Many of those involved in the scams are living in the Middle East and are either unwilling to leave lucrative overseas jobs or want an escape hatch in the event of instability in their home countries, according to government documents. In effect, they want the benefits of status in Canada but don’t want to actually live in Canada. [Cost to taxpayers to evacuate *Canadians of Convenience* from Lebanon in 2006 - $100-million. The new protocols may all sound very tough, but typically, we fall at the first hurdle:] Court records show that on Sept. 19 and 21, the Ozceliks pleaded guilty and were fined $30,000 for each count — a total of $120,000. In addition, they *could be* stripped of their permanent resident status and removed from Canada. 'Normally, if we prove that there’s a failure to respect the residency obligation, a person *can or might* lose his permanent residency and be removed afterwards,' [*Veronique Lalime, CBSA* spokeswoman for Quebec] said." (*National Post*, October 3, 2012) What part of "cheat" and "fraud" do we not get? Are we really so desperate for immigrants that we would seriously consider giving convicted scamsters a second chance?

 

Listen Up, Jason, Canadians Don't Want Temporary Skilled Workers

Written by Paul Fromm

Tuesday, 11 December 2012 06:14

*Listen Up, Jason, Canadians Don't Want Temporary Skilled Workers* ** Canadians are sharper than our chattering classes, immigration lobbyists and business voices seeking always to do things on the cheap. At times of high unemployment -- officially 7.3%, but really much higher -- with well over a million Canadians out of work, there is no reason for any immigration at all and even less of a reason for "temporary worker permits." Canadians can figure out that newcomers, immigrants or temporary workers, will do one of two things: take a job from a Canadian, thus keeping him or her poor and unemployed, or not find a job and be a charge on the taxpayer. We lose either way. *The CBC* (December 10, 2012) reports: "The majority of Canadians have problems with temporary foreign workers taking jobs that Canadians could do, according to a poll on the country's immigration system. Sixty-eight per cent of respondents in the CBC/Nanos survey said they 'oppose' or 'somewhat oppose' allowing temporary foreign workers into the country if there are Canadians looking for work who are qualified for the same jobs. Six per cent were unsure. The survey results were released on Monday, hours after Immigration Minister Jason Kenney unveiled details of a new program intended to speed the arrival to Canada of foreign tradespeople whose skills are in demand. Kenney said the Skilled Trades Stream will accept up to 3,000 foreign workers next year, and touted the program as a way to address labour shortages, particularly in remote regions of the country. The federal government is working with provinces, territories and labour groups to draw up a list of occupations that will be eligible. It's expected to include electricians, welders, heavy equipment mechanics and pipefitters. ... " In Alberta alone there are several thousand unemployed electricians, union sources tell me. Welders? You mean industry cannot train welders. Industry loves the temporary worker programme as labour brokers go out and recruit the bodies, the government lets businesses pay less than Canadian workers make. Above all, it's cheap! Besides the lower wages help keep Canadian workers' wages depressed. In times of high unemployment wages stagnate or fall. Immigration upsets the law of supply and demand by flooding the country with an endless supply. But cheap isn't necessarily good for Canada. Just how unreliable these endless wails about skills shortage are can be seen in the recent scandal in B.C., where a Chinese owned coal mine wanted to import several thousand Chinese temporary workers. Apparently, no Canadian coal miners wanted to mine. Funny, in advertising for the mining jobs, the mine made speaking Mandarin a requirement. Well, it's true, there probably aren't a lot of unemployed Mandarin speaking coal miners in Cape Breton. And, again, the notion of training able bodied and willing unemployed Canadians seems anathema to employers. No one should get into Canada until we are essentially back to full employment -- an unemployment rate of about 2%. *Paul Fromm* *Director* *CANADA FIRST IMMIGRATION REFORM COMMITTEE* By *CBC News*, cbc.ca, Updated: December 10, 2012 10:31 PM Most Canadians cool to temporary foreign workers, poll says - <http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/most-canadians-cool-to-temporary-foreign-workers-poll-says> - - [image: Most Canadians cool to temporary foreign workers, poll says]