Harper's new foreign worker pilot program revealed

In a meeting in Bonnyville-Cold Lake (a provincial electoral district in Alberta), Immigration Minister Jason Kenney outlined the future of Canada's temporary foreign worker program. One that apparently has nothing to do with immigration opportunities.

As reported in bonnyville nouvelle:

Highly skilled trade jobs such as welder, heavy duty mechanic and carpenter, are remaining vacant but a new pilot program for skilled temporary foreign workers announced on July 16, could help solve that issue said Kenney during his visit to Bonnyville on July 18.

“We're moving from what was a slow, passive and rigid system with declining economic results and lower levels of employment and income for immigrants and huge shortages in parts of our economy, to a system that is fast, flexible and responsive to the labour market,” declared Kenney.

Essentially the program will enable employers to recruit skilled trade workers in high demand from visa exempt countries, fly them to airports in Edmonton and Calgary and have an immigration officer stamp a work permit into their passports. The work permit is valid for two years and is good for any employer in the sector for which they were hired.

“This collapses what was a six or seven month bureaucratic process into a 30-minute process at the airport,” explained Kenney. “It really says to employers you now have (a) light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to meeting the labour demands, especially for major construction projects.”

Harper and Kenney have no apparent interest in bringing immigrants into the country - they simply want bodies to fill the needs of business, until business needs them no more. Then these workers will be sent back where they came from. Nowhere in Kenney's announcement does he mention the path that any of these workers will have toward permanent residence in Canada, and that is a glaring omission.

Read the article here