Coalition update
The
Coalition of BC Businesses is gearing up for a busy advocacy year, pressing
for policy reforms to expedite foreign worker applications, countering
pressures to increase the minimum wage rate and pursuing fair immigrant
labour wage rates for BC employers, to name a few.
2008 will be a critical year in the development
of BC public policy initiatives for the next government. With a general
provincial election scheduled
for May 12 of next year, now is the time to prepare our policy agenda
to help
shape the next government’s mandate on labour law and employment
standards. We look forward to hearing from member associations for public
policy suggestions.
Finally, the Coalition is pleased to welcomes
Kim Haakstad and the Alliance of Beverage Licensees BC as our most
recent member.
- John Winter, Chair
Set
fair wage rates for Canadian and foreign workers
In a letter to the Hon. Monte Solberg, Minister
of Human Resources and Social Development, the Coalition challenged
the methodology of calculating prevailing wage rates for temporary
foreign workers. The Coalition highlighted Service Canada’s inconsistency
in sourcing wage rate data and raised the concern that prevailing wage
rates for temporary foreign workers are in many cases unfairly higher
than average wage rates for Canadian employees for the same occupations.
Having supported recent reforms to expedite Labour Market Opinions,
the Coalition put forward recommendations to enhance the accuracy and
transparency of calculating prevailing wage rates for temporary foreign
workers. The Coalition is pursuing this issue further with Service
Canada. To view letter, click
here.
Don’t increase BC’s minimum wage Recent
calls to raise the BC’s minimum wage rate are misinformed
and run counter to the better economic interests of the province,
noted a recent Coalition letter to Premier Gordon Campbell. At
$8.00 per hour, BC’s minimum wage rate is fair. The Coalition
argued that job opportunities and consumer interests are best protected
by not raising the minimum wage rate. To view letter, click
here.
Strategic priorities for 2008
Each
year, as part of its strategic review and planning process, the Coalition
examines its mandate as an advocate and voice for small
and medium sized business on labour and employment issues. We believe
the mandate of the Coalition is as relevant and valid today as it
was when the group came together in 1992. We hope your association
will help to shape our 2008 policy agenda. Your valuable input will
help define the public policy initiatives and recommendations that
we take to the Premier and the BC Government in the lead up to the
May 2009 provincial election. Thus far, our 2008 policy agenda includes
the following:
• addressing BC’s labour supply and skills challenges
• countering pressures to increase BC’s minimum wage rate
• pursuing fair immigrant labour wage rates with Service Canada
• lobbying federal MPs to defeat Bill C-415 or any other anti-replacement
worker bill
We look forward to your
comments on these initiatives and your suggestions on any other public
policy priorities facing your industry. Please
send an email to info@coalitionbcbusiness.ca with your labour law
and employment standards priorities.
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