B.C. Health Care Company Fires Locals to Hire Outside Canada

British Columbia Health Care Company fires locals to hire outside Canada. Union asks federal Conservative immigration minister to investigate, put visa approvals on hold. The federal Conservative government has been asked to investigate two B.C. health companies working in tandem to fire unionized local workers and replace them with low-wage workers from countries such as the Philippines, Colombia, India and South Korea.

The British Columbia Government and Service Employees' Union (BCGEU/NUPGE) has written to Monte Solberg, the federal cabinet minister for citizenship and immigration, asking him to investigate the activities of Park Place Seniors Living Ltd. of Vancouver, owner of the Windsor Manor long-term care facility in Kelowna, and AdvoCare Health Services Ltd., based in Kelowna. "We find it highly inappropriate that Canadian employers are using federal and provincial immigration programs to gut existing pay and benefit standards for Canadian workers," George Heyman, BCGEU president, says in a letter to Solberg. "It is equally disturbing that these same employers would exploit foreign workers by paying them significantly less than Canadian workers for doing the same work," he adds.