The program has no enforcement mechanism to prevent mistreatment of workers

Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney, said yesterday at the Chamber of Commerce that foreign workers are not stealing Canadian jobs and that the remarks of labor leader Gill McGowan on the foreign workers program of the federal government are ‘outdated’.

Following this, the leader of Alberta Federation of labor challenged Kenney to a public debate on his comments. McGowan responded by saying that the comments of the minister would have been offensive, had they not been laughable.

He said that there is a general belief in the AFL that the program should be disbanded with immediate affect, not because it makes Canadians jobless, but because it is exploitative by nature.

McGowan argued that employers often take advantage of foreign workers by forcing them to work overtime without extra pay or do not pay later. He said that the program has no enforcement mechanism to make sure that there is no mistreatment of workers.

Kenney said at luncheon yesterday that although sometimes there are abusive situations, the federal government is working along with the provincial governments to make sure that such abusive cases are dealt in time and in an efficient manner.