Canadian Politics Thread

[Rip The Mesh]

7 minutes ago, Bob Long said:

 

Dunno Ricky , I see ads for part time jobs almost every restaurant or store I go into.

 

Richmond is like a different world, believe me.

[6of1_halfdozenofother]

4 minutes ago, Rip The Mesh said:

Richmond is like a different world, believe me.

 

I've seen plenty of stores and restaurants looking to hire in Richmond as well, especially in the malls.

People seem to want to lay the blame at temporary foreign workers, but I think there's also a dynamic of locals generally not wanting to work those menial jobs in retail, hospitality, or other customer service type jobs.

[6of1_halfdozenofother]

5 minutes ago, 6of1_halfdozenofother said:

 

I've seen plenty of stores and restaurants looking to hire in Richmond as well, especially in the malls.

People seem to want to lay the blame at temporary foreign workers, but I think there's also a dynamic of locals generally not wanting to work those menial jobs in retail, hospitality, or other customer service type jobs.

 

Case in point:
there are 2000+ retail positions available on indeed.com for Richmond BC right now -

 

600+ of which were posted in the last 2 weeks:

 

meaning that there have been 1300 job postings or more that have been sitting there for over a couple of weeks still waiting to be filled (many may be hiring for more than one person).

 

There's even more for hospitality - 3000+ postings, with about 2000 or more between the "15+/hr" and "25+/hr" range, and about 1500 or so that have been sitting there for more than 2 weeks (deduced by subtraction of available positions).

 

So is it really a lack of available jobs?  Or is it a lack of desirable jobs?  I suspect for locals, it's more of the latter than the former.

[DSVII]

16 minutes ago, 6of1_halfdozenofother said:

 

Case in point:
there are 2000+ retail positions available on indeed.com for Richmond BC right now -

 

600+ of which were posted in the last 2 weeks:

 

meaning that there have been 1300 job postings or more that have been sitting there for over a couple of weeks still waiting to be filled (many may be hiring for more than one person).

 

There's even more for hospitality - 3000+ postings, with about 2000 or more between the "15+/hr" and "25+/hr" range, and about 1500 or so that have been sitting there for more than 2 weeks (deduced by subtraction of available positions).

 

So is it really a lack of available jobs?  Or is it a lack of desirable jobs?  I suspect for locals, it's more of the latter than the former.

 

I can't imagine trying to live in Richmond making $25/hr (~$52-60k depending on how many days a week) when living anywhere near Richmond costs $2k+ a month in rent, depending where you are. 

 

Trying to thread that financial needle is nuts.  

[6of1_halfdozenofother]

7 minutes ago, DSVII said:

 

I can't imagine trying to live in Richmond making $25/hr (~$52-60k depending on how many days a week) when living anywhere near Richmond costs $2k+ a month in rent, depending where you are. 

 

Trying to thread that financial needle is nuts.  

 

Sure, but I don't really accept the argument that TFWs are "stealing" jobs from youth/students.  That's the main point I'm trying to make here.

[Bob Long]

12 minutes ago, 6of1_halfdozenofother said:

 

Sure, but I don't really accept the argument that TFWs are "stealing" jobs from youth/students.  That's the main point I'm trying to make here.

 

I don't either.

[Gurn]

Company to the government "No one will work for the wages we offer'

government "Ok, we will allow you to bring in people to fill those jobs, at those wages".

 

rather than telling those companies to raise the wage.

 

so much for a 'free market'

[Bob Long]

12 minutes ago, Gurn said:

Company to the government "No one will work for the wages we offer'

government "Ok, we will allow you to bring in people to fill those jobs, at those wages".

 

rather than telling those companies to raise the wage.

 

so much for a 'free market'

 

You think government should set wages?

[Gurn]

8 minutes ago, Bob Long said:

 

You think government should set wages?

you think employers should be able to bring in poor people that will work for a pittance?

Artificially keeping wages lower for everyone?

[Bure_Pavel]

59 minutes ago, 6of1_halfdozenofother said:

 

Sure, but I don't really accept the argument that TFWs are "stealing" jobs from youth/students.  That's the main point I'm trying to make here.

6.4%

Unemployment rate rises to 6.4%The overall unemployment rate rose 0.2 percentage points to 6.4% in June. It has trended up since April 2023, rising 1.3 percentage points over the period. Jul 5, 2024

 

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/240705/dq240705a-eng.htm

 

Decreasing temp foreign workers when unemployment rises and increasing them in times of labour shortages, you know we are getting close to an election when the government starts using common sense. 

Edited August 26 by Bure_Pavel

[Satchmo]

31 minutes ago, Bob Long said:

 

You think government should set wages?

No, not really but they do set minimum wage.

[bishopshodan]

38 minutes ago, Bob Long said:

 

You think government should set wages?

 

I didnt take what Gurn said that way.

 

To me, he is saying that companies should pay what they must to attract employees that live here.

Instead of getting bailed out by gov by being allowed to bring in cheap foreign labour. 

[Optimist Prime]

Higher minimum wages would be nice. Looking at that

 

1999 Alberta: 5.40 an hour

1999 B.C.: 7.15 an hour

 

2007 Alberta: 8.00
2012 BC: 10.25

 

2015 Alberta: 11.20 

2015 BC: 10.45

 

2019 Alberta: 15.00

2020 BC: 14.60

 

2023 BC: 16.75

 

So generally minimum wage rises faster with progressive governments, because conservative governments favour business over people. Wage competition is a thing in high demand sectors, but the long and short of it is that when 6 of every hundred unskilled workers are looking for a job, it is a corporate market, when 3 of every hundred are its a labour market. Go where the labour control the market to make more money, simulataneously lowering your living costs by leaving the most expensive cities in the nation. That is my advice to young people. I was in the army and a fed, but my wifes career blossomed on the civilian side in Ontario after growing up on the island. Overall I hope to see minimum wage raise up across the country at LEAST tied to inflation, that would be a good start. Almost a decade from alberta's 2015 11.20 an hour and it is only 15 an hour now, wtf... 17.40 in bc right now and was 10.45 in 2015.. 20 an hour would be 40k a year, a livable wage for most full timers, but your still not getting ahead. I have two 17 year olds right now on my property asking 20 an hour to do gardening and weeding, I am paying 25 cuz i am not a bastard boss. I call their extra bit a 'tip' but it is more incentive for them to come back hahaha

 

[Bob Long]

1 hour ago, Gurn said:

you think employers should be able to bring in poor people that will work for a pittance?

Artificially keeping wages lower for everyone?

 

I think people can make a choice where they want to work. 

[Bob Long]

20 minutes ago, Optimist Prime said:

Higher minimum wages would be nice. Looking at that

 

1999 Alberta: 5.40 an hour

1999 B.C.: 7.15 an hour

 

2007 Alberta: 8.00
2012 BC: 10.25

 

2015 Alberta: 11.20 

2015 BC: 10.45

 

2019 Alberta: 15.00

2020 BC: 14.60

 

2023 BC: 16.75

 

So generally minimum wage rises faster with progressive governments, because conservative governments favour business over people. Wage competition is a thing in high demand sectors, but the long and short of it is that when 6 of every hundred unskilled workers are looking for a job, it is a corporate market, when 3 of every hundred are its a labour market. Go where the labour control the market to make more money, simulataneously lowering your living costs by leaving the most expensive cities in the nation. That is my advice to young people. I was in the army and a fed, but my wifes career blossomed on the civilian side in Ontario after growing up on the island. Overall I hope to see minimum wage raise up across the country at LEAST tied to inflation, that would be a good start. Almost a decade from alberta's 2015 11.20 an hour and it is only 15 an hour now, wtf... 17.40 in bc right now and was 10.45 in 2015.. 20 an hour would be 40k a year, a livable wage for most full timers, but your still not getting ahead. I have two 17 year olds right now on my property asking 20 an hour to do gardening and weeding, I am paying 25 cuz i am not a bastard boss. I call their extra bit a 'tip' but it is more incentive for them to come back hahaha

 

 

I'm all in on raising the minimum wage to over $20, have been for a long time. I don't want to see governments deciding what particular industries pay or get too involved in labour supply. Sometimes it's necessary for things like picking fruit or fighting fires, not sure we need to saturate the restaurant market. But then again, maybe we do, a lot of people don't want to be in the service industry.

 

Also not sure if it's governments job to make sure everyone gets ahead. A living wage for sure, but if someone doesn't want to go get more training, etc., thats a choice. 

 

[nuckin_futz]

Canada to slash the number of temp foreign workers. Trudeau hints at immigration revamp

• Big backlash builds against immigration in Canada

Canada's governing Liberal party is being destroyed in the polls and will almost surely lose in an election that must be called between now and October 20, 2025 at the latest.

 

The election will almost-certainly be fought over immigration levels and the housing and infrastructure crunch that came with it. Here's a chart to highlight how the doors were thrown open:

 

 

 

Two big avenues were drivers:

 

Temporary foreign workers

College 'students' who used a backdoor via mostly fake colleges

 

The government has seen the writing on the wall and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing a revolt within his party. He's holding a cabinet retreat this week and seen the writing on the wall and announced:

• Places where the unemployment rate is 6% or higher will not be able to hire temporary foreign workers (the national level is 6.4% so this is much of the country)
• There are limited exceptions in agriculture, food processing, construction and health care
• Employers will no longer be allowed to higher more than 10% of their total workforce via temporary foreign workers
• Temporary foreign workers will be limited to one year contracts from two years previously
• Trudeau said government will review overall immigration levels this fall

"We'll be looking at unemployment rates and opportunities to make further adjustments over the course of this fall as we come forward with comprehensive level plans that will respond to the reality that Canada's facing now and in years and decades to come," Trudeau said.

 

Looking to the long term, the strong positive Canadian consensus on immigration is broken at the moment and that's likely to reverberate in elections and the economy for awhile. It's part of a global trend that should tighten western labour markets could eventually loosen housing markets. It's a tough one to handicap but Canada's 'GDP growth by immigration' model is done.

 

 

 

[Bob Long]

51 minutes ago, bishopshodan said:

 

I didnt take what Gurn said that way.

 

To me, he is saying that companies should pay what they must to attract employees that live here.

Instead of getting bailed out by gov by being allowed to bring in cheap foreign labour. 

 

what if you do that, and still can't find enough employees? 

 

I do agree there should be a cap on this, but there needs to be a balance or we will lose businesses as well, which also isn't good. 

 

[Ricky Ravioli]

32 minutes ago, Bob Long said:

 

what if you do that, and still can't find enough employees? 

 

I do agree there should be a cap on this, but there needs to be a balance or we will lose businesses as well, which also isn't good. 

 

Then I guess they need to re-think their business strategy

[Bob Long]

Just now, Ricky Ravioli said:

Then I guess they need to re-think their business strategy

 

even if its an industry wide issue, like restaurants? 

[Optimist Prime]

44 minutes ago, nuckin_futz said:

Canada to slash the number of temp foreign workers. Trudeau hints at immigration revamp

• Big backlash builds against immigration in Canada

Canada's governing Liberal party is being destroyed in the polls and will almost surely lose in an election that must be called between now and October 20, 2025 at the latest.

 

The election will almost-certainly be fought over immigration levels and the housing and infrastructure crunch that came with it. Here's a chart to highlight how the doors were thrown open:

 

 

 

 

Two big avenues were drivers:

 

Temporary foreign workers

College 'students' who used a backdoor via mostly fake colleges

 

The government has seen the writing on the wall and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing a revolt within his party. He's holding a cabinet retreat this week and seen the writing on the wall and announced:

• Places where the unemployment rate is 6% or higher will not be able to hire temporary foreign workers (the national level is 6.4% so this is much of the country)
• There are limited exceptions in agriculture, food processing, construction and health care
• Employers will no longer be allowed to higher more than 10% of their total workforce via temporary foreign workers
• Temporary foreign workers will be limited to one year contracts from two years previously
• Trudeau said government will review overall immigration levels this fall

"We'll be looking at unemployment rates and opportunities to make further adjustments over the course of this fall as we come forward with comprehensive level plans that will respond to the reality that Canada's facing now and in years and decades to come," Trudeau said.

 

Looking to the long term, the strong positive Canadian consensus on immigration is broken at the moment and that's likely to reverberate in elections and the economy for awhile. It's part of a global trend that should tighten western labour markets could eventually loosen housing markets. It's a tough one to handicap but Canada's 'GDP growth by immigration' model is done.

 

 

 

I prefer governments that read and react to new data, this one now does just that. There will be alt righters all over social media that think that what you said in 2012 should be what you are saying now, without regard for new data. That is just nuts. Chaos theory in some regard speaks to a structured 'organism' or if we expand that to be an organization 'that lives close to the chaotic edge is most easily favoured to adapt and benefit from changes in the environment, surroundings, conditions and climate that the organism, organization exists in. New data: new directive. Canada is still far too sparsely populated for us to hit the 'too big to fail' level of say the USA, despite our incredible wealth of natural resources, over the long haul we will want to be 80 million strong or higher in order to leverage our economy of scale to muscle our way to dominance on the global markets. Jus sayin, but for now, we have opened up the sluice gates a bit, now it is time to close them and allow the natural levels to even out before we open them again, as far as immigration goes. At least, in my humble opinion. 

 

like eating a giant cookie: we just took a big bite, now its time to chew for a while and swallow it, so we can gain energy from the calories before the next big bite. Hrm, i may be simply hungry...hahaha

[King Heffy]

6 minutes ago, Bob Long said:

 

even if its an industry wide issue, like restaurants? 

Restaurants also have an industry wide issue with illegal labour practices.  I have no issue with the worst offenders going out of business and losing everything.

[bishopshodan]

43 minutes ago, Bob Long said:

 

what if you do that, and still can't find enough employees? 

 

I do agree there should be a cap on this, but there needs to be a balance or we will lose businesses as well, which also isn't good. 

 

 

You have not been paying attention in class.

'You can solve any problem by throwing money at it!'

 

What businesses are you fearful that we would lose?

[Ricky Ravioli]

27 minutes ago, Bob Long said:

 

even if its an industry wide issue, like restaurants? 

I'd argue restaurants are a prime example of the problem. Where I live the amount of mediocre and overpriced restaurant food is ridiculous. They are a dime a dozen and most wouldn't even be noticed if they disappeared.

[aGENT]

3 hours ago, 6of1_halfdozenofother said:

 

Sure, but I don't really accept the argument that TFWs are "stealing" jobs from youth/students.  That's the main point I'm trying to make here.

 

There's a LOT of legit problems with some of those companies offering crap hours, split shifts, crap pay etc to keep Canadians away from the jobs and hence "need" TFW's, rather than competing in the natural labour market.  There's also a lot of them who interview a few Canadians and simply just don't give them the jobs again with a "we couldn't find anyone". They're very much abusing the TFW system vs actually paying competitive wages, shifts, benefits etc. It's the opposite of free market and a detriment to the country. 

 

If your business "needs" to work the system like that to remain competitive...

Edited August 26 by aGENT

[6of1_halfdozenofother]

6 minutes ago, aGENT said:

 

There's a LOT of legit problems with some of those companies offering crap hours, split shifts, crap pay etc to keep Canadians away from the jobs and hence "need" TFW's, rather than competing in the natural labour market.  There's also a lot of them who interview a few Canadians and simply just don't give them the jobs again with a "we couldn't find anyone". They're very much abusing the TFW system vs actually paying competitive wages, shifts, benefits etc. It's the opposite of free market and a detriment to the country. 

 

If your business "needs" to work the system like that to remain competitive...

 

I don't doubt there are bad actors out there who are abusing the system, but I don't think that's the gameplan of all the retail and service industry employers.  And there are a lot of employers looking for part time help that can easily be filled by local students or youth, employers who I think would prefer employees who can speak the language fluently, don't have to uproot from wherever they normally call home, and need the help now (instead of waiting for the paperwork to clear the ministry).