I think most employers are already strongly in favour of using existing workers. They are only driven to temporary foreign workers or undocumented workers when there are no living, breathing bodies at almost any level, trained or untrained, who they can find to accept that work at all, at any price they can possibly afford to pay. The labour market here and in Alberta is so tight that in some places workers at entry-levels jobs in places like McDonald's and hotel cleaning and so on are being paid $20 an hour. They still can't fill all their positions. Some of these basic restaurants are cutting services to the point where they will operate only a drive-through because they do not have enough bodies of any calibre at up to $20 an hour to do their job. That is the shortage we're facing. I am saying it is going to continue right through the foreseeable future, for the next 20 years, as the demographic of no young people and lots of retirees happens.
On March 31st, 2008. See this statement in context.