Canada may change entire temporary foreign worker program over Chinese miners controversy
"After 4½ years, it will be 10 years before it will be a majority of Canadians working underground, and it will be 15 y
Accusations of Chinese miners being dubiously brought into the Canadian province of British Columbia to work in coal mines has prompted the federal government not only to investigate the issue, but to review its entire temporary foreign worker program.

In a statement released Thursday by Human Resources Minister, Diane Finley, the government said it is not convinced that HD Mining has made sufficient attempts to hire and train Canadians.
Finley said the government is also concerned about allegations that HD Mining required applicants to be fluent in Mandarin.
Both the provincial and federal government are already investigating the use of foreign workers in HD Mining ‘s proposed underground coal mine near Tumbler Ridge.
On Monday, two major B.C. unions requested Canada’s Federal Court overturn a decision to allow about 200 foreign workers to come before the end of the year to start building the coal project.
According to the Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training’s website, a company can be fined up to $10,000 if found guilty of breaching the province’s Employment Standards Act.
Foreign workers are the responsibility of the federal government.
Chinese coal firms in Canada favour foreign labour – report
In unveiling Canada’s British Columbia’s job-creation strategy last year, Premier Christy Clark said the government planned to capitalize on high demand for minerals, especially in Asia, by opening up eight new mines in the next four years and expanding nine more by 2015.

What Clark didn’t specify was who would be employed on those mines, said labour lawyer Sarbjit (Bobby) Deepak in a letter to the Vancouver Sun last February.
The answer to his question became clearer last week, as reports unveiled that an initial group of 200 Chinese citizens will begin to arrive in coming weeks to work at new mines in the western Canadian province.
The full time workers – whose number could grow to as many as 2,000 eventually – follow $1.4 billion in Chinese funding for two of four coal projects in the northeast of the province announced last year.
The Asian coal mining companies that are staring business in B.C. have been accused of favouring Chinese applicants to fill available positions. Questioned by a local journalist who writes for The Province, the firms claimed it was a mistake that some of their local want ads demanded Mandarin language skills for jobs at their mines.
“The companies say they tried — and failed — to find Canadians to work at the mines, so the federal government is allowing them to bring in the ‘temporary’ Chinese miners as a result,” writes Michael Smyth.
But he says most of the ads clearly stated the companies were looking for workers who speak Mandarin, a requisite that would clearly leave the majority of Canadian applicants out.
“This single reference to Mandarin was an isolated and unanticipated case,” Jody Shimkus, a spokesperson for HD Mining International, told me in a statement.
“This ad was never meant to suggest there was a language requirement for Mandarin.”
But the “isolated” error was repeated in at least four ads.
However, an investigation by local news outlet The Tyee.ca shows that Chinese miners being recruited are paying over Cdn$12,500 for the right to work in Canada, and their actual wages are less than those advertised.
A recruiting ad translated by The Tyee promise Chinese miners the “possibility of immigrating to Canada” and the ability to “sponsor your family to Canada, too.”
None of the new mines announced by BC’s Premier have opened yet, but fears over who will be extracting the province’s coal keep growing.
Speaking at an economic summit on Tuesday, Clark said she’s set lofty goals for B.C.’s economy, which include turning the province into Canada’s No. 1 economy.
She added her government’s year-old jobs plan, which focuses on increasing trade with China and Asia and promoting mining and exploring innovations in technology and agri-foods, has already resulted in growth.
B.C. mine to hire only Chinese temporary workers for years
HD Mining plans to start hiring Canadians after 4 years
The B.C. Federation of Labour says documents show it will be 14 years before Canadians replace all the temporary foreign workers from China hired to work at an underground coal mine in northern B.C.
Two unions are in court challenging more than 200 temporary foreign worker permits obtained by HD Mining for its Murray River underground coal mine near Tumbler Ridge, B.C. The employer says there were no qualified Canadians to do the specialized work at the underground mine.
Documents tendered in the case include HD Mining's previously unreleased transition plan, which outlines how the company won't start hiring Canadian miners for more than four years and plans to continue using temporary foreign workers for the next 14 years.
The plan says temporary foreign workers will be used for 30 months of construction and then for two more years as they set up a training school and start recruiting and training Canadians.
After that, the plan indicates it will take another decade to shift the work to Canadians at a rate of 10 per cent of the mine's workforce per year.
The company has already said it will take 10 years to transition work to Canadians, but it has not said it will take more than four years for that process to begin.
The International Union of Operating Engineers and the Construction and Specialized Workers Union are in Federal Court this week asking for an injunction to stop more foreign workers from arriving until the unions' larger challenge against the permits is heard.