Today’s Federal Budget and GTA construction workers

                                                          Pages 67-70

The good news about today’s budget is that:

• It recognizes foreign workers as an engine for growth. I don’t recall any previous government putting the budgetary imprimatur on temporary foreign workers and the need to find pathways to citizenship

• It did not close the door on the GTA construction trades being considered within the new Global Skills strategy. In fact , the GTHA’s construction sector fits 4 square in the compliance definition

• It opens the door for a renewed invigoration of the International Mobility Program which allows work permits to be issued without LMIA’s  

Bottom Line: The GTA’s construction sector has been given a policy boost

We’ll see if:

• The construction sector will grab these policy initiatives and get the job done

                                               or  

• Will unions, employers and their ineffective, over paid government relations consultants even understand what happened today

Richard Boraks, March 22 2017