FRIDAY, AUGUST 04, 2006

Vancouver … BC Building Trades are shocked at an announcement by the federal Conservative government that it will “rubber stamp” foreign worker applications in a new pilot program announced today.

Wayne Peppard, Executive Director of the BC and Yukon Building and Construction Trades Council says Immigration Minister Monte Solberg’s announcement that the government will make it easier and faster to import temporary foreign workers is a complete reversal of a commitment to consultation made less than two weeks ago.

On July 18 Minister Solberg made a public commitment to continue consultations on the issue of foreign workers but today he says he wants the department to ‘rubber stamp’ foreign worker applications. Wayne Peppard, Executive Director of the BC and Yukon Building and Construction Trades Council. It’s hard to trust a Minister of the Crown who says one thing one day and another the next.

Speaking in Calgary yesterday, Solberg said the program will: Allow the employer to go to an immigration officer, have the application pre-screened, make sure everything is in order and when the paperwork actually comes to the [Canadian Border Service Agency] official, 99 per cent of the work is done and hopefully it will just be a rubber stamping.

Unions are upset at being excluded from consultations on the issue in spite of the Minister’s commitment to engage in further discussions with stakeholders about the reforms, Peppard said.

Peppard has written Solberg twice in the last two months on the issue of exploiting underpaid foreign workers to construct the twin tunnels for the new Richmond-Airport-Vancouver rapid transit Canada Line. The foreign workers were being paid as little as $1,000 US for 60 hour weeks, according to Peppard. The Minister hasn’t responded to those concerns but is warming up his rubber stamp for more of the same.

Peppard was quick to note that recent studies confirm that the skills shortage is not out of control. Workers are available in most trades as long as they are offered market pay rates, Peppard said. Construction unions support foreign workers as long as the skills shortage is demonstrated, Canadian credentials are mandatory, and monitoring and enforcement mechanisms are in place so that the foreign workers aren’t exploited as a source of cheap labour.

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For further information contact Wayne Peppard, Executive Director, BCYT-BCTC

Cell: 778-388-0014 Office: 604-291-9020

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For further information contact 

the BCYT-BCTC office:  604-291-9020

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