Harper heads north to promote resource development – by Steven Chase (Globe and Mail – August 19, 2013)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

OTTAWA — Stephen Harper has kicked off his annual tour of Northern Canada with a focus on resource development and the jobs it brings for locals. But the Prime Minister arrives in Yukon just as controversy erupts over efforts to recruit foreign workers to the territory.

Yukon’s government recently launched a temporary foreign worker program to fill positions in tourism and mining, only weeks after 100 Yukon mine staff lost their jobs.

The territorial measure is billed as a response to chronic labour shortages but it contrasts starkly with Ottawa’s efforts in recent months to discourage the use of overseas workers wherever possible after public anger over a B.C. mining company’s plans to bring in up to 200 Chinese workers.

Mr. Harper didn’t mention the Yukon program by name as he kicked off his northern tour with a brief speech in Whitehorse. However, the Prime Minister made a point of noting his government wants economic projects in northern regions to benefit locals.  “As Conservatives, we have pledged that northern development will mean northern prosperity,” he said. 

New federal measures to promote the hiring of Canadians over temporary foreign workers took effect July 31, including a $275 user fee for each application to recruit from overseas.

Reforms introduced by Ottawa also restrict the languages that can be listed as job requirements in hiring foreign workers to English and French.

In addition, the new rules oblige Canadian firms to more widely advertise jobs for Canadians first.

Mr. Harper began his eighth annual northern tour of Canada Sunday, embarking on the six-day trip in Yukon before crossing the Arctic Circle to promote mining and other resource extraction in this country’s most sparsely populated region.

Like Progressive Conservative Chief John Diefenbaker, Mr. Harper has a use-it-or-lose-it attitude toward Northern Canada that in the early years of his government led to high-profile measures to promote Canadian sovereignty in the resource-rich Arctic.

Now in his eighth year in office, the Prime Minister is focusing more on the economic and social development of a region that struggles with unemployment and the challenge of creating durable jobs.

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