Wow , this is absolutly mind blowing. So many able bodied canadians struggling to make ends meet, and instead of training our own countrymen first , we bring in more people from other countries to fill the jobs. This is the absolute stupidest idea yet . I have no issue with immigration when done properly , or if it does not impact natural citizens directly. Here is an idea for the Gov’t , If you want to open the immigration doors ,why not try to draw people who can contribute to Canada in the best way possible , by creating more jobs for our citizens instead of sending more of us to the unemployment lines.

Canadian Companies have to wake up and start spending real Money on Training , don’t rely on us to take out big Loans so we can attend
Schools to train us, but it’s so much cheaper to hire trained Workers. no effect on me I’am not in the Workforce anymore.

The unemployment rate in Canada is around 7%. I made this point in a similar thread, but we are about as close to 100% employment as we can get. I would say the majority of the 7% unemployed are either uneducated, untrainable, or unwilling to be.

With the impending wave of baby boomer retirements, we simply don’t have enough competent people domestically to make up for the loss of the workforce. It’s easy to say ‘train them’. Train who?

Plus, many of the jobs that are open are entry level jobs. Most young people nowadays think they should be the CEO right out of school. Nobody wants to start at the bottom or work in the entry level anymore. imo.

Another factor I didn’t mention is that it seems that people don’t move where the work is anymore. Nobody wants to live in Ft. Nelson or Ft. MacMurray (for example). They want the good jobs to come to them. It doesn’t work that way.

If we quit giving our jobs to immigrants we would have better jobs available locally and not everyone would have to relocate . Look at the trucking industry for one. Immigrant workers have come in and cut rates so low nobody can make a fair living anymore . Now throw in the rising cost of fuel and maintenance an owner operator cannot compete. Spent 20 years in the industry watching it decline. Much like other industries .

JohnnyBelt – In my opinion, you couldn’t be more right! Right on brother!

JohnnyBelt – In my opinion, you couldn’t be more right! Right on brother!

That is important to note that most industries are in decline with the exception of the oil industry. Ironically it is the oil industry that is effecting all other industries in this country and the biggest reason they are in decline.
Two parts to that are the high value of our “oil dollar” making all other of our exports less competetive. The second part being the vast country we are having the highest transport costs of all goods coming and going. Oil has been made king ,its service sector the queen and all else a slave to it, including workers and every other type of industry and manufacturing business and services all accross Canada.

Of all people to have brought this up recently was Jack Laytons successor.. albeit when he hit this nail on the head he also struck his finger by publicly blaming the western premiers of being federal puppets. Like the “wall street movement”..a sound subject with a rotten and to the point of distraction delivery.

IMO there is another dimension to this erosion of disposable income in that it is destroying our initative and productivity of our workforce. There are some common denominators which are lowering peoples incentive to work or depend on EI or refuse to do what it takes to better their skills and incomes. Immigrant workers might help a little but it can no way fix the overall problems nation wide.

If people feel that they cannot win a losing battle then they are likely to avoid committing to careers which seem in jeopardy. Agriculture was first and now the manufacturing and the forest industry is facing the same problem of how to attract workers who will stick with the pay scales which cannot be sustained when energy prices keep increasing.

most industries are in decline? does that really make sense to u?

Have to agree with JohnnyBelt. A decade from now, any person with an employable skill-set of any kind will have their choice of jobs. You simply can’t hide from the numbers. Baby boomers will start to retire and/or die and Canadians aren’t having the size of families that they used to.

We need immigration on a vast scale and even then there will still be enough jobs to go around for people who choose to work. I’m not sure why people feel so threatened by this subject whenever it comes up. I wonder if we would hear the same rhetoric if we only accepted anglo looking immigrants that had no accent which could be traced to their country of origin . . .

“most industries are in decline? does that really make sense to u”

Sure it does. In Canada, which industries are in their infancy or growth stage? Heck, even oil and gas is probably at maturity when you consider that its’ core product hasn’t changed in decades. Do you think our Oil and Gas industry will still be going strong in 2050? I tend to think it will be virtually kaput as technology takes over and alternate energy sources are made viable on a large scale.

One thing you can be sure of is that we won’t be the ones to discover and develop those alternate energy sources. We’ll leave that for some country like Germany to do. We don’t see much value in that “fancy pancy” stuff like science, research and technological advancements. It sounds like you need to be educated for those sorts of things and we are too busy chopping down trees, extracting oil/minerals and clearing the oceans of salmon and cod to worry about some fancy paper.

Seems like a lot of the newer immigrants of late can make a lot more money in the drug industry than in our resource industry.
So they won’t have much effect on OUR jobs.

On the other hand hear there was a bit of a exitous at tumbler coal mine after a mass pee test last week. Also me thinks the labour shortage wouldn’t be so bad if every one could pass the pee test.

Exactly kendoo – the same test you should have to pass for welfare, EI or WCB claims…

Yes Yes interceptor and why stop there. If you smoke or drink medical is denied.

Just another move from our own local dictators.

Just like the following.
http://www.theprovince.com/news/information+farm+outbreaks/6657194/story.html

The only light on the horrizon is the Leibs are on the way out and the NDP are the leading party and that is where the power is.

Yup once the NDP shuts the province down again we will have tons of unemployed people to choose from, just like the last time. No forestry, no mining just a socialist nirvana with double digit unemployment rates and a have-not status praying for tourists to come save the day. No need to look for immigrant workers. Good plan.

Keep on going there Liberals, were not quite communist yet, but were getting there!
I haven’t quite been dictated too enough yet.

We used to manufacture right here in P.G???
What happened???

When you consider the large number of people across northern BC who do not complete high school, it is not surprising to see such xenophobia.

“Hey, that guy with an unrecognized PhD came to Canada and took my jerb! Those immigrants take everything, they’ll take all our jerbs! Look! He’s going to night school, too! He’s going to take another jerb when he finishes! It’s not fair! Oh look, a UFC fight is on Pay Per View tonight, I’d better get a couple cases and a few oz for tonight.”

The way I see it the monetary ponzi scheme is coming to an end and will cancel out the need for all those foreign workers.

At any rate they can have it, this country is about done. Fukushima is the end of it for Canada and especially BC… we have been granted a short reprieve from the catastrophe to get our houses in order, but our days are numbered with nothing man can do to stop it. Spent fuel pools full of nuclear waste suspended 100 feet in the air by compromised supports with no way of removing the fuel waste and no way of repairing the building, once it collapses and goes critical most of North Asia is done for, and most of the Northern hemisphere will follow.

I’ve been looking at Darwin a small city in the Northern Territory of Australia in the Southern hemisphere close to a large desert safe from potential fall out. Alice Spring might be the oasis where man survives. They project 20% yearly growth in GDP over the next five years in Northern Territory and it takes only one month to have a work visa approved… once approved the wife and kid are automatically approved and the wife would have more rights than she has now in Canada to work and go to school… in Canada it takes minimum 2-years for a spouse and in Australia 1-2 months.

Eagleone – Our own little ray of sunshine.

http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,15971523,00.html

Fukushima vs Chernobyl … and 3 mile island … http://japanecho.net/311-data/1016

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17562418

We have to remember, that as it says in the article, the tsunami killed 15,853 people and injured another 6,000. More than 3,000 people are still missing. Not to mention the destruction.

Compare that to the Hiroshima bomb.

From the US Department of Energy (of all weird places) : “By the end of 1945, because of the lingering effects of radioactive fallout and other after effects, the Hiroshima death toll was probably over 100,000. The five-year death total may have reached or even exceeded 200,000, as cancer and other long-term effects took hold.”

So Eagleone must have seen “On the Beach” and is on to the “safe” zone on this planet.

Then again, he ought to consider this training if he does not want to get bit by a venomous snake in the home or outback … … ;-)

http://www.reptilecentre.com.au/2012-03-13-08-26-53.html

And there’s more kids graduating in this day and age than ever before projab!
And if you figure the kids now a days can’t spell well you can blame spell check for that!
Lets not forget the MUSHROOM FARM incident,
they couldn’t even read THEIR OWN LANGUAGE!

Let alone SPEAK or READ ENGLISH!

http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/Files/cfccd5ad-bd01-44ba-a36c-bc9b34a45994/Socio-EconomicProfile2010SchoolDistrict57.pdf

On page 5, 16.1% of population aged 25-54 were without High-School completion, vs a BC average of 11.1%. (2006). It will be interesting to see what 2012 reveals.

From 2007-2010, 33.2% of 18 year olds did not graduate high school in Prince George, vs a BC average of 29%.

JohnnyBelt, Pojeb_sa (cool nick), Northway, and other guys who can see further than tomorrow, bravo!!! Yes, we need more immigrants, entry level as well as high skilled. And there should be just two conditions: First-they do not have right to be on welfare or on any other financial aid except government aid for kids, second-they should have equal chances to get the job as any other Canadian. Because I am immigrant myself, I had hard time to get proper job position even I have master degree in Mechanical Engineering and lots of experience. After several years I finally met an employer who was enough brave to offer me a job (yes, it was around 40% less paid than my Canadian counterpart was but…) and who is still very happy because he got high skilled but low paid employee.

your kidding right, orthodix? The goal for opening our doors to an influx of immigrants is so our local companies can get highs killed CHEAP labour? Then we really should be worried. Why do we need highly skilled (?), or should I say cheap, labour, simply to sell all our resources to yet another country who devalues its’ workers? Welcome to the 21st century in Chinada.

Orthodox, don’t worry about But. Just another one in denial.

No, just another one who is tired of seeing our country being sold off to the lowest common denominator. Join the club johnnyboy. Money at all cost right? Forget about the people who died for this country and build it to what it once was. They are expendable.

As we hire more and more immigrants, our products become more amd more useless, just like the China junk. If you can find a straight piece of lumber anywhere, with four square edges, you had best nail it up right away because if you store it in a dry place for 2 days it will be a twisted stick. Quality has been sacrificed to cheap labour and heartless corporations. It’s just as well that Lakeland burned because the best part of their product went to the USA. If they rebuild, the product will be of lower quality than it is now.

But, start thinking with your own brain and answer me who’s fault is that we import cheap labour? Do you think that anyone likes to work for low wage? Or there is no other choice but to except whatever is offered? For normal person anything is better that welfare! Canadian companies that are hiring are in position to offer as low salary rate as they want simply because immigrants do not have equal choices and conditions when applying for job as any other ordinary Canadian. If employers have obligation to treat every applicant equally, then they can not offer lower wage than it’s fair current market wage. But again, that is in perfect world… When immigrant comes to Canada with two suitcases and with hope for better life (I am talking about majority of us, normal immigrants with sense of responsibility), first that he/she does is to try to find job to support family and stay away from government financial aids because there is always a fear of deportations if you make mistake, lack of knowledge about rights and obligations and many other unknowns. Employers know that and they use it!!!

Whose jobs are immigrants taking, But? Most of them are entry level jobs that Canadians don’t want.

We can try to deny it and pretend it’s not happening, but the numbers don’t lie. People will be retiring en masse in a few years and we don’t have enough people to replace them.

You can try to make it about me if you want, but you might want to look at the big picture.

“As we hire more and more immigrants, our products become more amd more useless, just like the China junk.”
I disagree as the exact opposite has and is happenning because we now have little choice in buying many things that are not even made in North America anymore.

Two main reasons they are not made here anymore is because of the difference in labour and manufacturing costs and second is the way consumers choose to buy cheapest products instead of quality products that cost more. Even the brand name products that you would assume are made in North America are no longer made there and are now made in china. I tried to buy a drill,to find out;Porter cable, milwaukee,dewalt all made in china and get this Makita was made in Ontario.

“Why do we need highly skilled (?), or should I say cheap, labour, simply to sell all our resources to yet another country who devalues its’ workers? Welcome to the 21st century in Chinada.”

But, your sentence is full of contradictions. You ask why we need highly skilled people and at the same time you say that we sell our resources to another country. Exactly, that is the reason we sell resources! Because we do NOT have enough skilled people (actually, we do not enough people at all) who will take opportunity and responsibility and process raw material right here in Canada, and than export finished products!!! It will create thousands new jobs that will boost up standard of living and help to every single person in this beautiful country. Compare BC with Great Britain: BC is four times larger than Great Britain and has 4.1 million people (2.2 are located in metro Vancouver area, 1.9 in the rest of province). GB has 60 million citizens, way less natural resources but still very high living standard. Can you, xenophobes, imagine what life can be in this very rich country if we have enough people to put that richness in use? No, you just complain about cheap imported labours and hate guys who are coming to the “promise land” (yes, despite xenophobes like you But, Canada is promise land for most of immigrants) to fulfill their dreams that they couldn’t do, for whatever reason, in their home land. Oh, yes, and than you complain about our roads that are in terrible conditions. Who and how roads could be fixed if there is no available skilled labour to do it, and there is not enough active work force that makes and spends money and pay taxes that will be used to finance roads fixing. And yes, your comment about Chinada is disgusting!!!

“Why do we need highly skilled (?), or should I say cheap, labour, simply to sell all our resources to yet another country who devalues its’ workers? Welcome to the 21st century in Chinada.”

But, your sentence is full of contradictions. You ask why we need highly skilled people and at the same time you say that we sell our resources to another country. Exactly, that is the reason we sell resources! Because we do NOT have enough skilled people (actually, we do not enough people at all) who will take opportunity and responsibility and process raw material right here in Canada, and than export finished products!!! It will create thousands new jobs that will boost up standard of living and help to every single person in this beautiful country. Compare BC with Great Britain: BC is four times larger than Great Britain and has 4.1 million people (2.2 are located in metro Vancouver area, 1.9 in the rest of province). GB has 60 million citizens, way less natural resources but still very high living standard. Can you, xenophobes, imagine what life can be in this very rich country if we have enough people to put that richness in use? No, you just complain about cheap imported labours and hate guys who are coming to the “promise land” (yes, despite xenophobes like you But, Canada is promise land for most of immigrants) to fulfill their dreams that they couldn’t do, for whatever reason, in their home land. Oh, yes, and than you complain about our roads that are in terrible conditions. Who and how roads could be fixed if there is no available skilled labour to do it, and there is not enough active work force that makes and spends money and pay taxes that will be used to finance roads fixing. And yes, your comment about Chinada is disgusting!!!

I don’t see anyone complaining about South African immigrant doctors taking their jerbs. If it were not for immigration, more than half of Northern BC would not have doctors.

Oh, and UNBC would have about 1/3 less professors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=768h3Tz4Qik

If it were not for certain professions in this country trying to protect their little controlling dynasties then we would accept accredited medical professionals from other jurisdictions..and have enough medical doctors to go around. That has to change if we are ever to have an adequate and affordable, functioning heath care system. That is definitely one area that needs immigration to open up.

One peave I have with immigration policy is that there is no restrictions as to where in Canada that these new worker people are to live and work. So what is intended to be an effort to fill jobs in places like Fort Mac actually end up to be just making our largest cities even bigger. The Vancouver/lower mainland area is a case of so much growth from immigrants that it is almost what you could call (large parts of it), a non Canadian city. I have nothing against any of these people but when I drive down a street in Richmond to see that most signs are NOT in English that I scratch my head wondering where this is going to end. I think it is they who are supposed to become Canadians and not the other way around. That is not likely a politically correct thing to say but it needs to be said to change the way that our immigration policy actually meets its supposed targeted needs of employment in areas needing these workers. If this doesn’t change, all that will happen is cities like Vancouver will end up being all new immigrants and everyone else will leave to retire elsewhere. How does that fix worker shortages anywhere else?

Yes, it is the promised land….promised to everyone other than born and raised BCers. I say give the whole damn thing back to the indians and pay ME to live in the bush and hunt and fish. THAT would be the promised land. Pojehobe, frankly I don’t give frig what you say, you don’t even speak the language correctly.

But, take the pills, go for walk somewhere outside, you know that fresh air makes miracles! And then you may stop talking nonsense!!!