Good morning, committee members, chair, and fellow witnesses.
CBT represent 500,000 skilled trades workers all across Canada in most trades, from bricklaying to welding, to carpentry, to crane operators, to electricians. Our members work in all sectors of construction, but mainly infrastructure, institutional, commercial, and energy-related construction.
Canada is part of a global economy and must continue to participate in trade deals that enable growth and serve Canadian interests. That leads to the question, how does TPP serve the interests of Canada and specifically Canada's labour market?
As the TPP was being negotiated, we all read the headlines on the impact to agriculture, manufacturing, and pharma. Milk was spilled on Wellington Street—I think there's more coming today—and there were angry discussions about intellectual property regimes.
For my members, these are not the most significant measures in the deal. The most striking element of the TPP for my members is the access afforded foreign workers to middle-class jobs in the Canadian labour market. This is something new for Canada in trade deals. Never before have hands-on workers like people in the building trades been directly named or affected in a Canadian trade deal. No one understands how the immigration provisions in the TPP will impact the Canadian worker. No one knows how many Japanese or Chilean construction contracting companies will come with their own workforce. No one knows because Canada has never tried this before.
My members are concerned. We're concerned that Canadian companies and Canadian workers could be displaced from our own economy by this deal. We are concerned about the long-term impact on the Canadian workforce, especially chapter 12 and the irreversible nature of the labour mobility provisions through side letters with Japan, Chile, Australia, Mexico, and Peru.
Specifically, we're concerned as the TPP enables the entry of foreign nationals for employment purposes in the skilled trades with no examination of local labour market conditions before this work permit is issued. We are concerned that TPP grants access to foreign workers without providing clear reciprocal access for Canadian workers. We are concerned that there is no reliable mechanism for foreign credential recognition federally or provincially in Canada. This responsibility should not be up to CBSA to decide at the border.
Finally, we are concerned with the link to the national and subnational government procurement process. Access to government procurement is nothing new in trade deals, but the ability to staff up Canadian projects without examining local labour markets conditions first is very new. We thought the infrastructure projects in Ontario, about $120 billion, and across Canada, about $100 billion, were entirely focused on stimulating Canada's economy.
As it stands right now, while foreign companies can win and build projects here, a Canadian workforce must actually be used to build it. The TPP changes that. Under the TPP provisions, when a foreign company wins a bid, workers in Ontario or other provinces have no guarantee that they will have access to those jobs, and the public infrastructure funding, from Canadian taxpayers by the way, goes overseas, not back into our own economy.
The TPP will enable the entry of foreign nationals for employment purposes in our trades with no examination of local labour market conditions before a work permit is issued. That means, Mississauga, or Chatham, or London, or New Brunswick could be experiencing high unemployment, and foreign nationals would be permitted to enter that labour market without examination or consideration for that labour market. There is a fairly rigorous system in place currently under the temporary foreign worker program. An assessment is conducted on local labour markets by ESDC and CIC before a foreign national is permitted to take up work in Canada.
Essentially, under TPP, unrestricted access is granted to chapter 12 countries with no consideration for local employment conditions. Let me repeat and let me be clear that we're not anti-trade and we're not anti-foreign worker, but we want to put Canadian workers first. Our members and future members just want a fair first shot at jobs in their own country. Under the TFW program, before seeking foreign workers, employers are required to attempt to do at least some training of Canadians first, a condition that is completely absent under TPP.
In the TPP, Canada agreed to temporary entry for technicians, and the agreement specifically outlines a number of trades.
While I've been assured that Canada would not negotiate an agreement that was not 100% reciprocal, in fact, upon reading the commitments to these other countries, it's not entirely clear to me or us—