In last week’s federal budget, New Democrats used their power to make big banks and other financial institutions pay a little bit more of their fair share after making record profits. New Democrats are calling for these measures to be extended to big box stores and big oil companies making record profits so that the money can be reinvested in solutions that make life more affordable for you and your family.
“When the cost of food, housing and gas for your cars goes up faster than workers’ wages, it’s like getting a hefty pay cut — it’s not fair,” said Blaikie. “Rich CEOs are lining their pockets on the backs of struggling Canadians. It doesn’t have to be this way. Instead of maintaining a rigged system that benefits the wealthiest, we need to fix it by making sure those at the top pay their fair share. By doing so, we can invest more in healthcare, build affordable homes, and create good jobs that help fight the climate crisis for Canadians.”
Hill Times: ‘Structural solutions not inflammatory conclusions’ required to fix foreign worker program: Senator Omidvar
NDP MP Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East, B.C.), her party’s immigration critic, said the UN report should come as no surprise to the government, as it echoes “what migrant workers and labour advocates have been saying for a very long time.”
NDP MP Jenny Kwan says the power imbalance that leads to abuse is structural to the temporary foreign worker program, not just its low-wage stream. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade
“The way the program is set up exposes workers to exploitation and abuse because they’re reliant on their employer to retain their status in Canada,” Kwan explained. “If they face abuse and exploitation and complain about it, they stand to lose their job, and—in the worst-case scenario—they stand to be deported back to their country of origin.”
Kwan said the government has taken a “haphazard approach” to addressing problems with the TFWP to date, focused almost solely on the low-wage stream, but—while misuse of that stream is “particularly deplorable”—she said the root of the problem is structural to the entire program.
“The government has to address the main structural issue, and that is the power imbalance that exists between the temporary foreign worker and the employer,” Kwan said. “The only way to do that is to ensure that the temporary foreign workers actually have landed status on arrival, then they are not dependent on the employer, and would not have to suffer potential abuses and exploitation.”
“It doesn’t matter what stream it is, all the temporary foreign workers programs subject migrant workers to potential exploitation because of that power imbalance,” Kwan said, adding, though, that the NDP supports calls to end the program’s low-wage stream.
While the government and groups like the Canadian Chamber of Commerce may reject the UN rapporteur’s characterization of the program, the recent Senate report found similar abuses within the program.
