Photograph by: Handout , Vancouver Sun
A truck is loaded with coal at a northeastern B.C. mine. New mines are looking to Ottawa to allow them to bring workers from China after failing to tempt Canadian workers to sign on.
OTTAWA --- A major B.C. labour organization denounced on Monday the “mass importation” of Chinese workers to mine coal in the northeast part of the province, saying it is “preposterous” to suggest British Columbians don’t have the skills to fill close to 2,000 full-time jobs destined for foreign workers.
We want to register our grave concerns about the uses and abuses of the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program as it relates to projects in British Columbia,” the organization told Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Premier Christy Clark in an open letter.
It was issued by the Bargaining Council of the B.C. Building Trades Unions, made up of 15 unions representing 35,000 craft construction workers, including underground miners.
The organization was reacting to the disclosure in The Vancouver Sun that a consortium of companies, mostly Chinese, are planning to bring anywhere from 1,600 to just under 2,000 Chinese nationals to B.C. in coming years to work in four proposed underground mine projects.
Permits under the TFW program have already been issued to 201 Chinese nationals to work in the most advanced of the four, the Murray River project near Tumbler Ridge, which is at the environmental review stage.
It is slated to begin full production in 2015. The other three projects are at various stages of development and have many more hurdles to overcome before becoming operational.
The TFW program brought in just over 190,000 workers to fill jobs in Canada in 2011, including roughly 46,000 in B.C. Companies usually must show in advance that they can’t find the workers inside Canada before they can seek TFW permits.
Link:
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/metro/Labour+group+slams+mass+importation+Chinese+workers+coal+mine/7394291/story.html
