Busted by the Alberta local of the electrical workers’ union and a couple of federal NDP Members of Parliament, the United Conservative Party Government has put its plan to recruit new temporary workers by poaching temporary workers from Dubai on ice.
On Friday, under a picture of Premier Danielle Smith walking with a guy in a white thobe during COP28 climate conference last December in Dubai, the CBC revealed that “Alberta is looking to lure workers from the United Arab Emirates as part of a 2025 international recruitment mission.”
Monday, though, the CBC reported beneath the same photo that “the Alberta government has decided to cancel a foreign worker recruiting trip to the United Arab Emirates.”
The reversal was noted as quietly as possible Sunday night in the form of a statement sent to some media from the office of Alberta Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Muhammad Yaseen. It was not posted yesterday on the government’s website.
According to the CBC’s account, Yaseen “said the ministry was made aware of the potential recruitment mission earlier this week, but that after reviewing the mission’s purpose, he has decided not to pursue it.”
It’s difficult to believe this came as that much of a surprise to the minister. Consider the timing of the leak last week of documents to the media by Local 424 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which represents workers in Alberta, and the letter on the same topic sent to the federal employment minister by the two NDP MPs.
The document from the IBEW showed that an employee of Yaseen’s ministry had written to Alberta companies encouraging their participation in the mission. You can trust this former civil servant that this is not something civil servants would have decided to do on their own.
The document showed the government planned to support the scheme, which would have enabled construction companies to bring in low-wage TFWs to compete for jobs with Alberta construction workers. Edmonton’s unemployment rate hit 9 per cent in September, by the way.
“Bringing foreign workers to an economy suffering elevated levels of unemployment poses a serious threat of driving down wages,” said Edmonton Strathcona MP Heather MacPherson and Timmins James Bay MP Charlie Angus in their letter to Ginette Petitpas Taylor. “Alberta is already suffering from the lowest minimum wage in the country.”
Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan said in a news release that “there is no doubt in my mind that the UCP would have proceeded with this recruitment trip if we hadn’t raised the alarm.”
“The reality is that there are still many employers, especially in the construction sector and low-wage service sector, who continue to view the TFW program as a first choice for recruiting workers, rather than a last resort,” he added. “It’s also clear to us that the UCP spends more time thinking about the interests and preferences of those employers than thinking about the negative impacts that the use of TFWs has on wages and jobs for ordinary working Albertans.”
Well, yeah! McGowan advised keeping an eye on the UCP to see they don’t do it again, which seems fair, if unlikely to be foolproof.
The social media photo used in both CBC reports also features a scruffy Rob Anderson, then the director of the premier’s office and now her chief of staff, in the background, doing a passable impression of a bodyguard.
A note on peaceful protest in Alberta
The University of Alberta would very much like it if we would just forget about its embarrassing decision last spring to call in the Edmonton cops to kick ass and take names at the “extremely peaceful” encampment set up to protest the destruction of Gaza, which continues unabated.
To that end, a statement published Thursday by U of A Board Chair Kate Chisholm notes that the third-party review by a former Court of King’s Bench justice of the decision found no laws were broken. Such a finding always comes as a relief in official Alberta.
Chisholm went on to assure her readers that on the U of A’s campus “peaceful and respectful protesters will always be welcome to exercise their rights to free speech between 5 a.m. and 11 p.m.”
This is a relief. Thank goodness the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees our right to free expression between 5 a.m. and 11 p.m., between 5:30 a.m. and 11:30 p.m. in Newfoundland.
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