Canada’s budget watchdog doesn’t know how 154,000 foreign workers contribute to the economy due to lack of information.
David Ball in his recent article for Tyee reports on how the Parliamentary Budget Officer Jean-Denis Fréchette claims that the government knows nothing about thousands of foreign workers and cannot count that missing data to calculate a bigger picture of the Canadian economy and their contributions to it.
In the years between 2002 and 2012 the number of temporary foreign workers in Canada went up to 338,221 from 101,098. According to Fréchette, the government failed to list the jobs held by at least half of that population.
On Wednesday, the federal government approved visas for 93 temporary workers to be employed by Facebook in its Vancouver offices. However, opposition critic JinnySims pointed out that the government is unable to claim having made informed decisions because there is a dearth of data.
A representative of The Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, Syed Hussan, said in a phone interview, that this report by Fréchette leads to opportunities for taking steps in the right direction, and that PBO should make recommendations to the government on collecting more data on foreign workers.
According to Fréchette, the duty of his office is not to make recommendations to the government but only to collect data and report facts and figure. However, from the criticism being doled out by Sims, it doesn’t seem the PBO is doing a good enough job.
David Ball in his recent article for Tyee reports on how the Parliamentary Budget Officer Jean-Denis Fréchette claims that the government knows nothing about thousands of foreign workers and cannot count that missing data to calculate a bigger picture of the Canadian economy and their contributions to it.
In the years between 2002 and 2012 the number of temporary foreign workers in Canada went up to 338,221 from 101,098. According to Fréchette, the government failed to list the jobs held by at least half of that population.
On Wednesday, the federal government approved visas for 93 temporary workers to be employed by Facebook in its Vancouver offices. However, opposition critic JinnySims pointed out that the government is unable to claim having made informed decisions because there is a dearth of data.
A representative of The Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, Syed Hussan, said in a phone interview, that this report by Fréchette leads to opportunities for taking steps in the right direction, and that PBO should make recommendations to the government on collecting more data on foreign workers.
According to Fréchette, the duty of his office is not to make recommendations to the government but only to collect data and report facts and figure. However, from the criticism being doled out by Sims, it doesn’t seem the PBO is doing a good enough job.
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