I just want to point out that the federal fair wage schedule takes care of anything under the Canada Labour Code. The Canada Labour Code conditions apply to the construction of prisons, military bases, anything to do with transportation, anything to do with wharves, Indian reserves, pipelines. Any pipeline that crosses a provincial border is covered by the Canada Labour Code, because they're not provincial.
It's kind of.... You know, one of the most controversial major construction projects in the country right now is pipeline-building. It's just kind of convenient that we're eliminating the fair wage act just in time to accommodate one of the biggest construction projects perhaps in North America. I think you can make a connection safely.
I'll give you another example, that of the pulp and paper mill in Gold River. You don't think the temporary foreign workers undermine local jurisdictional...? The poor guys lose their pulp and paper mill to a.... China buys it; they're going to set it up there. The millwrights and everybody laid off there know every nut and bolt in the place, but they've brought in gangs of temporary foreign workers from Bangladesh to dismantle the pulp and paper mill. They're sleeping six to a hotel room. God knows what they're being paid; maybe nothing.
So there are 80 or 100 unemployed millwrights and carpenters and pipefitters and tradespeople standing outside the fence while temporary foreign workers are doing the last six months' worth of work at that pulp and paper mill.
It's happening all over the country—maybe not at a Quiznos or a Robin's Donuts or a Tim Hortons, but that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about major construction projects that do work for these labour brokers, who move gangs of workers all around the world. We call them “labour pimps” in the industry. They undermine the local conditions everywhere they go.
We're opening the door to this by eliminating what was put in place to protect Canadian workers. I mean, it was Canadian taxpayers working on projects paid for by Canadian taxes, and they're getting screwed out of decent working conditions by the elimination of this fair wage act.
I'm a certified journeyman carpenter, and you're over there calling me a union boss. You guys love that. Yes, I represent working people. Working people voted for you, and you're undermining their fair wages.