Juno News - It's time for the government to put Canadians first

More than 1 million Canadians lost their jobs in the month of March, making it the worst month on record for job losses in the history of our country. It defies logic that the Canadian government is paying young workers to stay at home and do nothing while also recruiting temporary foreign workers to work in essential jobs in Canada.

00:00:00.000 Hi, this is Candice Malcolm with True North. Today I want to talk about that recent economic

00:00:09.600 report and the jobs report that was released this week. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. The

00:00:13.760 numbers are bad. More than 1 million Canadians have lost their job in the month of March,

00:00:18.660 making March the worst month on record for job losses in the history of our country. Even that

00:00:24.560 though doesn't tell the full story of the suffering and misery happening in Canada right now.

00:00:28.960 2.1 million people have seen the number of hours they work reduced by more than 50 percent and the

00:00:36.560 number of hours worked in the entire economy has contracted by 15 percent. So 5 million Canadians

00:00:43.380 have already applied for the government's new temporary income support program. That makes up

00:00:49.020 about one in every four workers in the Canadian economy. The tourism and hospitality industries

00:00:54.780 have been hit particularly hard and this has had a disproportional impact on young workers and low

00:01:01.180 wage workers. A recent Agnes Reid poll found that 45 percent of Canadians aged 18 to 24 have already

00:01:08.940 been laid off or seen reduced hours. So with so many people out of work, so many young people just

00:01:14.960 desperate to get their foot in the door, desperate to get some work experience, maybe pay off debt

00:01:19.360 or save for their future. It defies logic that the Canadian government is paying these young workers

00:01:25.040 to stay at home and do nothing while also recruiting temporary foreign workers and seasonal agriculture

00:01:31.760 workers to work in essential jobs in Canada. So the Trudeau government finally announced that they were

00:01:39.280 going to close the Canadian borders on March 16th. This was well after Europe and other countries around the world

00:01:45.360 took similar initiatives to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. On March 20th, Canada expanded

00:01:51.920 that ban to American citizens too, basically saying only Canadians and permanent residents are allowed

00:01:57.760 to enter the country. But then on March 21st, the government quietly made an exemption for seasonal workers

00:02:04.560 and temporary foreign workers. According to CIC News, which is a newsletter run by Canadian immigration

00:02:10.960 lawyer David Cohen, following the travel ban, quote, industries that relied on temporary foreign workers

00:02:17.600 pressured the government to not disrupt the flow of essential labour to Canada, unquote. And so as a result,

00:02:24.240 exemptions were made for workers in occupations such as agriculture, agri-food, food processing and trucking.

00:02:33.120 Canada typically welcomes 60,000 seasonal agriculture workers to Canada each year. These workers prep fields,

00:02:40.800 plant seeds, set up irrigation systems, fix farm equipment, prune and trim plants, and so on.

00:02:47.920 And these workers earn a pretty good salary, up to $15 an hour plus room and board. Well, spring is here and farmers

00:02:55.200 are desperate for help during planting season. But the global pandemic, the coronavirus pandemic, is harming Canada's

00:03:02.000 ability to get workers onto farms. Visa offices around the world have been closed. Applications for these jobs have dried up.

00:03:10.320 And workers who do get to Canada must wait and self-quarantine for 14 days. And to make matters worse,

00:03:16.960 there was a coronavirus outbreak among temporary foreign workers living at a plant nursery in Kelowna,

00:03:22.640 BC. This has made many people worried about workers bringing the coronavirus disease into Canada,

00:03:28.880 which was the very reason why Canada implemented the travel ban in the first place.

00:03:33.200 You know what? Now is the time for Prime Minister Justin Schroeder to do something useful, to show some

00:03:39.600 leadership and to create a national work program to match young Canadians with shortages in the labour

00:03:46.320 market. Instead of bringing in foreign workers, thousands of foreign workers to fill these jobs in

00:03:51.440 our farms, why not learn from our history and help put Canadians to work? During the Great Depression, the

00:03:57.760 federal government created a system of unemployment relief camps, where in exchange for housing, three

00:04:03.920 meals a day, medical care, clothing, and a very modest daily stipend, young men worked up to 44 hours a

00:04:10.880 week, clearing bush, building roads, planting trees, and working construction. The program was not without

00:04:17.360 its flaws, but it successfully employed 170,000 men and gave them a sense of purpose and responsibility

00:04:24.960 during a very difficult time. Justin Trudeau recently told Canadians that they can serve their country

00:04:30.720 by staying at home and obeying strict isolation laws. He went so far as to compare our duty to stay at

00:04:38.880 home to the accomplishments of the courageous young soldiers who fought and won at the Battle of

00:04:45.360 Vimy Ridge 103 years ago. Trudeau should instead call on young Canadians to serve their country in a more 0.61

00:04:52.800 meaningful way by working to help protect food security in Canada. It would allow these young

00:04:59.200 workers to work hard, to give back, and to feel productive and useful during this incredible time

00:05:05.840 of crisis and great uncertainty.

Juno News - April 10, 2020

It's time for the government to put Canadians first

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