Thank you.
Contrary to what MP Kusmierczyk said, INDU is not doing a study on this issue. I don't know why he keeps saying it. Perhaps he was having some challenges with the Internet connection when I was speaking earlier to it, when I said that INDU is in the middle of Bill C-27—the government's bill on privacy and artificial intelligence—and doing clause-by-clause to 256 amendments that have been proposed, all of them substantive, including the 55 amendments from the broken bill that the government proposed to its own legislation. There is no ongoing study of this, and it's misleading to say that, even though he heard me say it earlier.
The reason we're here is because this isn't me, this is the union, the Canada's Building Trades Unions, saying that this is happening. Let me get into some specifics, since apparently the Liberals missed the point on the $50-billion subsidy that they should be Canadian jobs if you're going to subsidize. Here's what the union is saying. They said LG has instructed Jeil and Daejin—they are subcontractors on employment—to use eligible Korean nationals and Mexican nationals who could qualify for a certain work visa on the site, and even told them to seek out refugee claimants in Canada who could perform the work. This is apparently in an effort to keep their costs low. NextStar is increasingly tapping into two contractors that are using foreign workers to take work originally promised to local contractors. This includes work on multi-million dollar press lines and installing module lines. The CBTU has told folks that they have lots of proof that foreign workers are performing this unspecialized work, and they have unionized members who are unemployed that could be doing this. In fact, after the Prime Minister met with NextStar on March 14, the union actually amped up their hiring of foreign workers after talking to him. I'd be curious as to what was discussed in that meeting that they felt after meeting the Prime Minister they could actually hire more foreign workers for the construction.
And there is no pause going on, as was claimed. That's the reason the union wrote this letter—there is no pause. In fact, they've got to the point where they're frustrated. Even after the threat of going to the media, the union had yet another meeting with management to try to get an MOU, an understanding, on not having foreign replacement workers. These are jobs, just to be clear, that Canadians can be hired for; workers who are available for work but are being replaced by people not from Canada. They're generally known as a foreign person coming in to replace workers in Canada—a foreign replacement worker—and that is what's happening at this plant.
The contract says they can only hire Canadians, or a limited number. I can tell you at one point NextStar said they were going to hire 600 full-time foreign replacement workers in the running of the plant. They also said they would have up to 1,000 foreign replacement workers. That was in the media. They changed their tune once they started to get public pressure by this committee and others.
This is a real issue. It's not something the government says Conservatives are making up. This is the letter from the union. Perhaps they didn't hear it. I could read it again, Mr. Chair, just in case some of the members' earpieces weren't working. I'll leave that.
However, if you don't know this, this is on the Government of Canada's website: material handler for the plant, languages needed, Korean. This is the Government of Canada's own website, and it says who can apply: candidates with or without a valid Canadian work permit. That's on the Government of Canada's website. Do you recognize the logo of NextStar Energy? A general affairs specialist is hardly some specialized worker from Korea who needs to come here. Let's see, it says that as a general affairs specialist, you will be responsible for various aspects of the company's operations, providing administrative and organizational support. Your tasks will be related to the efficient functioning of the office and ensuring smooth daily operations of the company. It also says here, “Responsibilities: office management and organization, correspondence handling and mail management, coordination of meetings and events, administrative support for various departments, document management and archiving, managing office supplies and inventory”.
These are really specialized tools that only Koreans have: “Supporting HR in recruitment and training”; “Building and maintaining positive relationships with vendors and clients”; “Assisting with travel arrangements for employees”; and “Ensuring compliance with safety and company policies”. Requirements include “Experience in a similar role or related field”; “Strong organizational and multitasking skills” and “Excellent verbal and written [skills]”.
They sound like very specialized, unique things that you can only find in South Korea, plus “Fluency in Korean”.
However, that's not all, Mr. Chair.
Here is another general affairs specialist with similar types of things, including more office management, in a separate posting by NextStar. It says that Korean is preferred. For the position of material handler, Korean is an asset. The position of general affairs specialist requires fluency in Korean. The position of electrode quality engineer is bilingual in English and Korean. A module production planner position requires English and Korean proficiency. In quality management systems, global experience is preferred. For a module production technician, the language requirement is reading and writing in English. Hey, we found one! A listing for a cell/electrode quality engineer says, “Bilingual in English [and] Korean”.
It goes on and on and on.
MP Kusmierczyk clearly isn't looking at the job sites when he is making this defence of his government, and I understand why he's doing this. He's embarrassed by the fact that his government didn't think to use the words “employ Canadians” when they made this commitment. He's embarrassed by the fact that the company has said it is going to hire up to 1,000 construction workers who are outside specialists.
Therefore, there will be 600 Canadians and 1,000 foreign workers. I guess it takes 1,000 specialized people to oversee 600 general construction workers. Also, there will be 500 to 600 permanent workers from Korea out of 2,500.
This is not one or two here or there. This is a serious issue. This is $15 billion in taxpayer production subsidies in this plant. This is half a billion dollars in construction costs being paid by the taxpayer. If you're going to do business with the Government of Canada, and you're going to suck all this government taxpayer money—Volkswagen, Stellantis, Northvolt, Honda—you had better be prepared for some public scrutiny. You had better be prepared to prove that you're hiring Canadians.
It's beyond me why the NDP does not want clarity on this. The motion at the industry committee, by the way, for those of you who don't watch the clock, ended an hour ago. That's why people are here. That motion was only to have the ministers appear. It wasn't to actually have the contract—