A Winnipeg MP claims temporary foreign workers (TFWs) are displacing local tradesmen on an airport expansion project, while the subcontractor who hired the workers says the MP is electioneering.
WINNIPEG
A Winnipeg MP claims temporary foreign workers (TFWs) are displacing local tradesmen on an airport expansion project, while the subcontractor who hired the workers says the MP is electioneering.
Ottawa-based Reemaco Inc. hired about 22 TFWs, mostly from Lebanon, as carpenters to build a ramp to the new air terminal at the Winnipeg airport.
“We were horrified to learn that local qualified trades people were not being hired and being laid off, while temporary foreign workers continue to be brought in,” said Winnipeg Centre New Democrat MP Pat Martin.
“Our workers are sitting outside the fence looking in while Lebanese workers are flown in from Moscow. The labour brokers now realize that Canada is an open door and the temporary foreign workers are flooding in.”
Wayne McLennan, business agent for the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, has names on his list “lining up for work.Manitobans are being sent home and the temporary foreign workers are staying there.”
The union claims 50 member carpenters and scaffolders were working on the job, but that number dropped to 10 as a result of layoffs and the use of TFWs.
Reemaco Inc.’s owner, Raphael Kassis, dismisses complaints as being misinformed and politically motivated, pointing out carpentry is one of the Manitoba trades listed on the Human Resources and Social Development Canada (HRSDC) website eligible for the program.
Anyone who wants to hire foreign labour for occupations listed on the under-pressure list are only required to conduct minimal advertising, rather than the more comprehensive recruitment efforts normally required under the TFW program.
“It was not Reemaco which did the research and studied what occupations and trades were needed in this market,” said Kassis. “Reemaco advertised for months and could not find people.”
Kassis said HRSDC followed established procedures by giving his company the approval to hire the TFWs, which included confirming with the union that there was a shortage of carpenters.
McLennan said he was contacted by the federal government, but he did not tell them there was a shortage.
“When the department called me and said, could we supply workers for this project? I said absolutely,” said McLennan. “We have people on the books.”
If that is the case, Kassis said he would like to tap into that pool. “It would have been a lot cheaper than paying for the transportation, housing and allowance that are needed when hiring temporary foreign workers. The fact is that we truly can’t find qualified people.”
“We could have started 20 new apprentices on this job. Instead, a bunch of foreign workers are eating our lunch. I want these guys out of the country,” said MP Martin
According to Kassis, Martin and McLennan should challenge the government and not his company if they have a problem with his use of temporary foreign workers.
“I should not have to defend myself because I am not doing anything wrong,” he said. “It doesn’t matter where these people come from. I recruit qualified people and the Canadian Embassy will do the homework,” he said.
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