As Canada slowly implements a new two-tier system into the Canadian economy, the amount of outcry against this action is quite surprising. By implementing a system where temporary workers get a pay deduction of 15 percent, Canadian industries, markets, and ultimately the economy will improve.  As Diane Finley the Human Resource Minister said, “We are taking action to ensure that the temporary foreign worker program support our economic recovery and effectively responds to local labour market demands." Therefore, I am personally in full support of this conservative plan to improve the economy and at the same time astounded by the amount of negative pressure placed onto this model. 


The Canadian economy, is an economy that is based greatly on exporting certain raw materials such as lumber and oil to other nations. The forestry industry alone contributes to almost 4 million jobs in Canada, and as a result, is one of canada's power industries vis-a-vis the economy. However, the major issue that is preventing this industry from prospering even further is the amount of costs businesses in this sector must pay for workers. As a result, Canadian businesses are discouraged from hiring more workers and ultimately can not keep up with consumer demand from countries such as china. By creating a system where Canadian businesses can afford to hire more workers to meet the demands of consumers, Canadian industries can ultimately prosper more and become more competitive on the international scale. 


Although, I understand the opposing arguments that this system might encourage employers to hire temporary workers and not Canadian citizens, I feel that the extent of this argument will not be so detrimental to the economy in the long term. Since the entry of Stephen Harper, immigration laws have been tightened greatly to accept skilled workers and immigrants over those without experience. We see doctors, engineers, and skilled contractors that are being accepted into Canada because of their qualifications. So what this means is, Canada is only accepting immigrants that will contribute to Canada accordingly to it's job demographics. Even now we see these policies work, skilled workers from across the globe are coming to Canada, in a sense, Canada is becoming a land of opportunity to many. Therefore, the problem is not attracting the best but rather providing an incentive to keep the best in Canada. What is happening is that the same workers that were accepted through immigrations, the doctors, the nurses etc,  are leaving Canada because there is no work given to them. This is occurring for two reasons, 1) the international recession, and more importantly 2) the competitive edge given to Canadian citizens over immigrants. Because employers must pay both Canadian citizens and immigrants the same amount, employers are hiring the Canadian citizens over temporary workers (patriotism). Well, why is this a bad thing? Well, when we have a system that does not give equal opportunities to skilled temporary workers that can contribute to Canada in ways Canadians cannot (cultural differences, different qualifications etc), that is when we say we are not looking to better Canada as a whole, moreover abiding by patriotic feelings. In addition, in many cases these temporary workers often become canadian citizens, bringing their own different skill sets and experiences to Canadian markets. Therefore, by providing an incentive (the two tiered system) to employers to hire temporary workers we are evening the playing field for the job market(employers will hire someone more if they do not need to pay as much) and more importantly providing jobs to workers to provide an incentive to keep the best in Canada. The greatest nations are nations that embody the best of all. 


Therefore, because of the fact that this two-tiered system will allow businesses to prosper to their max and provide incentives to skilled potential-canadian citizens, I feel that this plan is a brilliant idea proposed by the Canadian Government. 


Citations
http://www.jjica.com/lumber_demand.php
http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/qc/job_futures/statistics/8616.shtml
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/article/1168905--two-tiered-wage-system-announced-by-tories