Why are jobs going begging when unemployment is still high?

Perceptions by Gerry Warner

A story in the news about two weeks ago was more than a double/double dose of trouble for a Dawson Creek Tim Hortons, which was subject to a complaint laid by the BC Public Interest Advocacy Centre on behalf of four Mexican employees that were hired under the federal government’s controversial temporary worker program.

The complaint alleges the four employees were subjected to overcrowded housing by the owner of the Tim Hortons franchise ortons Hortons and were victims of racist and discriminatory treatment. At this point, the complaints are just allegations and there’s no way of knowing whether or not they’re true. But there’s another aspect to the case which is important and for the most part received scant coverage. And that aspect is simply this: Why are so many Canadian companies having trouble finding employees?

In Dawson Creek it can be easily surmised that the Peace River community’s close proximity to the Alberta oil patch makes hiring workers at entry level wages a difficult task. Nevertheless, given the fact that many Tim Hortons employees are teenagers and teenagers for the most part are going to school and unavailable to work in the oil patch you wouldn’t think it would be that hard to find a few ambitious teens eager to work.

But apparently it is, and not just at Tim Hortons, but at many other businesses and employers in the province. What’s going on here?

One of the main factors appears to be wealth. Not wealth in the top one per cent sense, but relative wealth. You and I may not consider ourselves wealthy, but compared to the average level of wealth in Mexico or the Philippines, which supply many of our temporary foreign workers, we are wealthy and not too eager to work in low paid, entry level jobs that require little experience. But those same wages that we look down our noses at sound pretty good to workers from the Third World which is why they flock here. I found it quite interesting to note that the ages of the four Mexican workers involved in the Tim Hortons complaint ranged from 43 to 28. Trying to get similar-age Canadians to work for those wages is next to impossible, hence the influx from outside and the controversial temporary worker program.

According to a recent story in the Vancouver Sun, close to 50,000 were employed in the program in B.C. in 2011, almost double the amount working under it in 2005. But why should there be any “temporary” workers hired in the province when we have an unemployment rate of  6.7 per cent? Despite this, one mining company is currently trying to bring in more than 200 Chinese miners under the program.  It seems unfair when there are miners in this province out of work.

But it also seems unfair why companies like Tim Hortons have so much trouble finding young people willing to work in their iconic Canadian donut houses. Many other businesses have the same problem too. With the B.C. minimum wage now standing at a respectable $10.25-an-hour, the second highest in Canada, what’s with our youth? That’s a good wage for high school students living at home. It beats cutting grass, baby sitting or delivering papers. Are kids spoiled these days? Are their parents not encouraging them to work? Are they all waiting for the perfect job?

In the early 60’s when I was a teenager, kids were glad to have a paper route. Now you see adults delivering papers. When I got older, I fought forest fires or picked fruit in the Okanagan. Now most of the Okanagan fruit pickers are from Mexico.

Perhaps I’m becoming a curmudgeon before my time, unlike my good friend Peter Warland ,who’s earned his status honestly by age. Just the same, I do think there’s something wrong with a country whose citizens refuse to do menial work. Wasn’t that the situation in Rome before the Huns and the Visigoths rushed out of the forest and toppled the mighty Roman Empire?

Are we heading for the same fate? Who knows? But I can’t help but think the Canada of today will not be the Canada of tomorrow . There are millions in Asia and Africa willing to come here and work twice as hard for half as much and glad to do so. They may be “temporary” workers now but that will change.

And so will Canada. But for better or worse?  If we don’t get off our butts and rediscover our work ethic, I think the answer is obvious.

Gerry Warner is a retired journalist and Cranbrook City Councillor. His opinions are his own.