Canadian government expands foreign workers program

Filed under Canada, Skilled Trades Shortage

The government of Canada is trying to kill two birds with one stone as it expands a program to encourage immigrants to fill openings in skilled trades. The Expedited Labor Market (ELMO) program targets specific trades and allows for the fast-tracking of the immigration of foreign workers with those skills. Recent changes expand the program from 12 to 33 occupations.

The program has some controversy as labor organizations like the British Columbia Federation of Labor argue that it is exploitive. Jim Sinclair, president of the B.C. Federation of Labour, says, “This is the same way they built the railway with Chinese. They brought them here, then sent them back (when finished).” Labor leaders argue that while there is a labor shortage there is also too much low pay in the trades.

Another opinion, from Philip Hochstein of the Independent Contractors and Business Association of British Columbia counters this. “I think [the government] has finally listened to the construction industry.”

According to Canadian government statistics, there were more than 36,000 temporary foreign workers in B.C. in 2006, more than twice as many as there were four years earlier.