It’s time for the government to put Canadians first
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Summary
Candice Malan with True North talks about the impact of the travel ban and the devastating March jobs numbers, and why Justin Trudeau should create a national work program to support young people in the agricultural and food processing industries. She talks about how the 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.
Transcript
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Hi, this is Candice Malcolm with True North. Today I want to talk about that recent economic
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report and the jobs report that was released this week. I'm not going to sugarcoat it.
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The numbers are bad. More than one million Canadians have lost their job in the month
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of March, making March the worst month on record for job losses in the history of our
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country. Even that, though, doesn't tell the full story of the suffering and misery happening
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in Canada right now, 2.1 million people have seen the number of hours they work reduced
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by more than 50 percent, and the number of hours worked in the entire economy has contracted
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by 15 percent. So 5 million Canadians have already applied for the government's new
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temporary income support program. That makes up about one in every four workers in the Canadian
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economy. The tourism and hospitality industries have been hit particularly hard, and this
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has had a disproportional impact on young workers and low-wage workers. A recent Agnes Reid poll
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found that 45 percent of Canadians aged 18 to 24 have already been laid off or seen reduced
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hours. So with so many people out of work, so many young people just desperate to get their
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foot in the door, desperate to get some work experience, maybe pay off debt or save for their
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future. It defies logic that the Canadian government is paying these young workers to stay at home and
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do nothing, while also recruiting temporary foreign workers and seasonal agriculture workers to work
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in essential jobs in Canada. So the Trudeau government finally announced that they were going to close the
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Canadian borders on March 16th. This was well after Europe and other countries around the world took
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similar initiatives to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. On March 20th, Canada expanded that ban to
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American citizens to basically say only Canadians and permanent residents are allowed to enter the
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country. But then on March 21st, the government quietly made an exemption for seasonal workers and
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temporary foreign workers. According to CIC News, which is a newsletter run by Canadian immigration
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lawyer David Cohen, following the travel ban, quote, industries that relied on temporary foreign workers
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pressured the government to not disrupt the flow of essential labour to Canada, unquote. And so as a result,
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exemptions were made for workers in occupations such as agriculture, agri-food, food processing, and trucking.
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Canada typically welcomes 60,000 seasonal agriculture workers to Canada each year. These workers prep fields,
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plant seeds, set up irrigation systems, fix farm equipment, prune and trim plants, and so on. And these
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workers earn a pretty good salary, up to $15 an hour plus room and board. Well, spring is here and farmers
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are desperate for help during planting season. But the global pandemic, the coronavirus pandemic, is harming
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Canada's ability to get workers onto farms. Visa offices around the world have been closed, applications for these
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jobs have dried up. And workers who do get to Canada must wait in self-quarantine for 14 days. And to make
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matters worse, there was a coronavirus outbreak among temporary foreign workers living at a plant nursery
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in Kelowna, BC. This has made many people worried about workers bringing the coronavirus disease into Canada,
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which was the very reason why Canada implemented the travel ban in the first place. You know what?
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Now is the time for Prime Minister Justin Schroeder to do something useful, to show some leadership,
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and to create a national work program to match young Canadians with shortages in the labour market.
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Instead of bringing in foreign workers, thousands of foreign workers to fill these jobs in our farms,
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why not learn from our history and help put Canadians to work? During the Great Depression, the federal
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government created a system of unemployment relief camps, where in exchange for housing, three meals a day,
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medical care, clothing, and its very modest daily stipend, young men worked up to 44 hours a week,
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clearing bush, building roads, planting trees, and working construction. The program was not without
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its flaws, but it successfully employed 170,000 men and gave them a sense of purpose and responsibility
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during a very difficult time. Justin Trudeau recently told Canadians that they can serve their country
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by staying at home by staying at home and obeying strict isolation laws. He went so far as to compare
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our duty to stay at home to the accomplishments of the courageous young soldiers who fought and won at
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the Battle of Vimy Ridge 103 years ago. Trudeau should instead call on young Canadians to serve their country in
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a more meaningful way by working to help protect food security in Canada. It would allow these young
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workers to work hard, to give back, and to feel productive and useful during this incredible time