The leader of the Official Opposition in Ottawa has launched an all-out assault on the Canadian Temporary Foreign Worker Program, fingering the program for all that ails our nation. Low wages? Blame the foreigner. Home ownership out of reach? Blame the immigrant. It is a tried-and-true dog whistle that alt-right demagogues have been leveraging across the globe in a bid to gain power.
Immigrants are an easy target—low hanging political fruit if you will. This is especially true since so many newcomers to our country are of a different shade than most “old stock” Canadians, aka not white, making them particularly visible in the crosshairs of a frustrated public.
They are taking our jobs, goes the narrative, they are taking our housing goes the lament, and it has resonated with a good portion of both the right and the left in his country. Nothing like a resonating talking point to get people riled up—and a riled public is pure electoral gold.
Never mind that the issues of youth unemployment and a lack of affordable housing were already well on their way up the ladder of public issues long before the recent influx of record numbers of immigrants.
In fact, for the past two decades the impending economic doom of a retiring Baby Boom generation has dominated most economic discussions at conferences. It was plain that, with declining national birthrates (a trend common to all western economies), there would soon not be enough bodies to keep our economy afloat. It was an economists’ “given.”
Opening the floodgates to immigration quickly solved that problem—albeit bringing some new challenges along with it. It can be argued that too many immigrants were brought in, and the government has taken steps to stem that tide now that the immediate threat of the vanishing boomers has largely abated. The argument for reform is there, but tossing the baby out with the bathwater by closing the program is just a kneejerk play to people’s worst instincts–that didn’t work well for Pierre Poilevre in Carlton last federal election.
Much is being made of the rising unemployment rate in Canada recently and immigrants are being fingered as the culprit. But it is not the temporary and seasonal agricultural worker who is the problem. They are what helps to keep the inflation of your grocery bill in check—oh yes, food inflation could and would be far worse if those workers were not in the fields harvesting the crops, and they do it for wages far less than would entice most Canadian workers.
Certainly, the argument can be made that the Temporary Foreign Worker program is being gamed by some corporations eager to pad their profits, but that issue is a small minority in the larger scheme of things. Under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program an employer has to demonstrate there are no Canadians lined up for the job and that the wages being paid to them are competitive in their industry.
Canadian industry, especially the hospitality industry, has made it clear that they do not want the taps on immigration closed off completely any time soon. Unlike the Leader of the Opposition, the people making those decisions actually work in the private sector.
A more pressing issue, especially for youth unemployment, is the number of foreign students who can apply for temporary work permits and who can stay on long after their studies are completed—often being exploited by unscrupulous employers or by the students themselves. That issue has been fingered for helping to create a more than 14.5 percent youth unemployment—but even there, foreign students are only one of the factors.
Youth are facing a near perfect storm when it comes to employment opportunities. Artificial intelligence is fast replacing many of the entry level jobs in the economy, that would be mostly youth. Governments at all levels faced with the challenges of responding to the tariff threats coming from south of the border are aiming at public service job cuts, who is last in, first out? And the longer-term issues of that trend will echo through the economy for many, many years.
Yet again, the issues are not immigrants, temporary or otherwise.
The real underlying issues are the lack of proactive policies in housing (mostly by provincial governments as it is their constitutional responsibility). The provinces have not made meaningful investments in affordable and social housing for decades, and, sorry, the private sector is too busy building luxury condos and monster homes in the suburbs to bother with such low-return investments. The bottom end of the housing continuum lies in the provincial government’s bailiwick, and politicians of all stripes in power have been sorely lacking in that department.
In the meantime, the politics of division and scapegoating are dominating the news cycle these days. Rather than stepping up, as His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, with thoughtful and coherent policy alternatives, the Leader of the Opposition is sticking to his sound bites.
One of the latest tactics making the rounds is an attack on Prime Minister Mark Carney for not keeping his promise of making Canada the leader in GDP growth among the G7…this with the Liberal leader only being in power for a few months. Patently unfair? True, but in the alt-right world of Pierre Poilievre, it is a talking point too juicy to pass up.
Canada elected a grown up and serious government leader who possessed the skillset best suited to deal with the unprecedented challenges our nation faces. In the few short months he has been at the helm, Prime Minister Carney has not only taken steps to strengthen our economy but has also made significant efforts to heal some of the regional rifts hampering our national unity—even at the cost of his own political capital.
Time will tell, but it is our expectation that serious and considered national policies will be more effective in the long run than dog whistles and sound bites.
