Sure. I'm happy to respond first.
Thank you for the question.
As I think I indicated in my presentation, one of the concerns of the Steelworkers and others in the labour movement is that the temporary foreign worker policy as it currently stands operates as a disincentive or a deterrent against employers investing in and properly considering training and apprenticeships for the future. What we have is a very easy way for employers to bring in temporary foreign workers. They sign up for their permit. They get their permit. They don't have to worry about training.
In our view, one of the reasons that employers are coming forward and saying that we have a labour shortage—one of the reasons, not the explanation in its entirety—is that they haven't anticipated their labour needs and there hasn't been investment in training and apprenticeships. As a result, the easy way out is to get an LMO.
I'd like to comment in that context on one of the observations that Mr. Sinclair made when he said that in his view, Blue Mountain is not able to operate, and I think he used these words, that they can't make the business work if they pay workers at a wage that would attract Canadians. Well, again, as Ms. Charlton said, we find ourselves in the same place as Mark Carney on that issue.
Mr. Carney said a couple of weeks ago that if you're having difficulty attracting workers, the market can deal with that, and the market can deal with that by ensuring that wages and working conditions are such that you do attract Canadians, because the alternative to bringing in temporary foreign workers is paying members of the domestic labour market wages that attract domestic workers. If we don't do that.... And it's not just Mr. Carney who has said this. Canadian Public Policy, in a publication issued last year, said that the effect of continued reliance on temporary foreign workers is to continue to depress wages and maintain unemployment.
If the option is that we pay domestic workers a wage that attracts them, or we continue to rely on temporary foreign workers, as the policy now stands, we have the effect of depressing wages and maintaining unemployment. In our submission, the downside to continuing to use temporary foreign workers to meet those labour market demands is far, far outweighed by the upside.