Economics 201: Foreign Workers

Foreign workers need to be treated with respect, but most of them shouldn't be here.

Foreign workers are useful in cases where certain skills are not available in the Canadian employment pool.  Using a foreign worker in this scenario gives a company the ability to move forward with business, and hopefully adding incentive for Canadians to acquire that skill.

But in the cases that have come up in the media recently, the "skills" that certain employers seem to be seeking is "a willingness to work for ridiculously low wages".  And with all due respect to McDonalds, that isn't what the program should be used for.

If McDonalds can't hire Canadians to do these jobs, then there are a couple of possibilities:

• Canadians are not willing to do that work for the wage paid; or
• the job sucks

In either case, McDonalds is competing for workers willing to do that work, and therefore must adjust the wages paid for the job, or the terms of the job itself, in order to attract willing workers.

In the case where businesses can not afford to attract willing workers, I would argue that business is not economically viable.  And just not being economically viable should not qualify said business from benefiting from what is effectively a subsidy program.

If you can't find people, you have to offer to pay more.  Or do something else to make yourself an attractive employer.

Or find a more lucrative business to be in.