Good morning, Mr. Chair. My name is Cordell Cole. I'm an international representative from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and, first of all, I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to speak this morning.
Today I rise against the TPP. This is the first trade deal to specifically mention construction workers. Regarding chapter 12 of the agreement, there was no consultation by the Harper government with the Canadian building trades unions, which make up a significant amount of the construction workforce in Canada.
In our view, this agreement would allow foreign contractors to come in here and bid more aggressively than our Canadian local contractors can. Furthermore, in chapter 12, there is no policy to hire Canadians first, and therefore, regardless of the unemployment levels in your city, your region, or your province, foreign contractors could come in and bring a totally foreign workforce to perform the work in your area. To me that's certainly wrong.
Entry of foreign workers wouldn't require trade-specific certification tests, and the length of stay for the foreign workers would be up to one year with the possibility of obtaining extensions. Also, it appears that there will not be any extensive enforcement requirements under the agreement, which leaves it open for foreign contractors to pay substandard wages and provide substandard working and living conditions for foreign workers.
Mr. Chair, Nova Scotia has a long, proud history of producing and providing a highly skilled, highly productive, and safe workforce to the users of construction. We have been doing this for over a hundred years. The unions of the Nova Scotia building trades have a strong commitment to trades training and spend millions of dollars each year on apprenticeship and journeyperson upgrade training. The workforce here is world class, and we've completed everything from the smallest commercial jobs to the biggest industrial sites, including offshore platforms. Simply put, we do not need foreign contractors to come into Nova Scotia to do work that we have qualified people to do, so we're asking that the Liberal government have a long look at this, and at the end of the day, say no to the TPP.
Thank you very much, and good luck in your deliberations.