Editor: B.C. mining jobs are being given to temporary foreign workers. In Tumbler Ridge, Chinese-owned HD Mining has received permission to import 200 temporary underground coal miners, for their Murray Creek mine.And that’s just the first wave, as other Chinese mining companies want to import more than 2,000 miners to B.C.’s North for copper, gold, coal, etc.
The fix is in, as 350 Canadians applied for these jobs at HD Mining and not one qualified. One of the qualifiers is that you have to speak Mandarin.
Jim Sinclair of the B.C. Federation of Labour revealed that HD Mining does not have to hire a Canadian worker for four and one-half years and that a ‘temporary’ job can last 14 and one-half years. What government genius dreamed this up? Chinese-owned HD Mines makes profits with cheap imported labour to mine and ship our resources to China to make steel; the Chinese miners send their wages back home to China; China makes the steel with their jobs and sells the steel back to us.
The money is not recycling spinoffs in our economy but is mostly going to China’s benefit. We are subsidizing them for the privilege of being their customer.
Christy Clark is on the radio telling us in millions of dollars worth of ads how wonderful her jobs program is, while you stand in the unemployment line, looking like a Dr. Seuss character. United Steel Workers tried real hard to find out who owned HD Mining, with the help of a Beijing University researcher, assisted by experts in China.
Huiyong Holdings BC Ltd. holds 55 per cent of HD Mining. But who owns Huiyong is a mystery, and it could be a Chinese state-owned shell company. Then 40 per cent of HD Mining is owned by Canadian Dehua, which is owned by Chinese state-owned corporations. Not surprisingly, Elections BC shows the BC Liberals received donations of $20,810 in 2011 and 2012 from Canadian Dehua International Mines Group Inc.
Surely Clark and her gang wouldn’t sell us down the greasy mine shaft for such a paltry sum. There has to be more to it.
Our governments are misleading and selling us out in the dumbest way possible, and our MLAs and MPs owe us some big explanations.
Roland Seguin,
Langley