Cause and effect in the Atlantic fishery: EI vs TFWP

On 22 May 2018 I had an op-ed in the Sun newspapers about the relationship between EI and the Temporary Foreign Workers Programme (TFWP) in Atlantic Canada. On the surface they have little to do with one another. Dig a little deeper and you rapidly discover that employers in the fishery cry out for foreign workers, not because they don’t want to hire locals but because the locals won’t work once they’ve got “stamped up” for the years. Blaming the TFWP for this is like saying without farmers’ crops there would be no sun….when in fact it’s the other way around.