Wednesday, November 15, 2006

I've got a wild idea - let people in

Monte Solberg is apparently unveiling a big new plan that will let big firms hire foreign workers when "Canadian won't do the work" or whatever. This is just stupid. There are plenty of reasons why Canadians don't want to go work for good money in Alberta, primarily because it's Alberta, fer chrissakes. (I kid because I love.)

Seriously, I wouldn't mind the money that I could make at some entry-level job in Ft. McMurray or wherever. But there's a bunch of problems, like the fact that I know absolutely nobody in Alberta, wouldn't know where to start, wouldn't have a place to stay, etc. We have profound regional differences in unemployment in this country - how about we help some of the unemployed and under-employed in other provinces find work in the high-demand provinces? It wouldn't take much - some temporary shelter, help setting up interviews, etc. Of course, a federal plan that actually did this would be perfectly constitutional, but would have the provinces screaming about the apocalypse.

Not that I'm opposed to immigration in the slightest, btw. Anyone - anyone, I say - who wants to come to this country out of the 242 competitors* should be welcomed with open arms. If you don't have a criminal record and can speak the language, bonus. It's not like we're hurting for room in this place.

*Okay, the bottom, like, 200 countries all are kind of the suck. Still, anyone who chooses Canada over Sweden should be naturalized before they realize their mistake.

2 comments:

Altavistagoogle said...

If I can't move to Mexico or Jamaica, France or England, why should we let them in?

Salaries in Fort McMurray are quite low considering the cost of living. That is the main problem with jobs in Alberta. The salaries need to catch up with those in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

john said...

How about because there are benefits to Canada if we have immigration, regardless of what other countries do? How about because legal immigration is vastly, vastly preferable to the illegal kind that we have to deal with anyways? How about because most Canadians are immigrants or the children of immigrants, and we shouldn't kick the ladder out from under the people beneath us?

I could go on, but do I need to?