Thread: Too Lazy in Halifax to Work? (Immigrant labor necessary)

Too lazy in Halifax to work?

By STEPHEN MAHER Ottawa Bureau

Tue. Nov 24 - 4:46 AM

OTTAWA — If anyone ever stops Nova Scotia farmers from hiring migrant labourers to harvest their crops, they would destroy a lot of businesses because unemployed Nova Scotians don’t want those jobs, says Gerald Keddy, the Conservative MP for South Shore-St. Margarets.

"Nova Scotians won’t do it — all those no-good bastards sitting on the sidewalk in Halifax that can’t get work," Mr. Keddy said Monday.

He said if you want to "shut down the Annapolis Valley, and every market garden operation and all the apple industry, then don’t bring in immigrant labour. We’ve got 20 Christmas tree growers using immigrant labour this year."

» ALSO SEE: Tree grower defends using Mexican workers
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1154318.html

Mr. Keddy was upset that a reporter called to check out a rumour that he had hired migrant labourers to work on his Christmas tree operation.

"Why would the question be asked?" he said. "Why would it matter?"

Mr. Keddy has an eight-hectare Christmas tree operation, which he runs with his kids. They don’t bring in any migrant labourers, but Mr. Keddy said nobody should criticize farmers who do because "they can’t get enough local labour."

It’s also great for the workers from out of the country, he said. "They pay the guys 10 or 12 bucks an hour. It’s a great job for the Mexicans. They’ve got to pay either their way up or their way back. It’s not slave labour here."

( smaher@herald.ca)

http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1154284.html

So businesses can just decide to break any law and it is fine. I don't think so! Punish both undocumented immigrant and traitor employer equally with jail time, fines and deportation of both.

They cant find people to work the xmas tree lots. Oh please.....spare me. They can find plenty of people to work those lots. Americans did it in the past and they would do it now. Its bs.

They were hiring Micmacs and Labradorians only recently now that they bring in Mexicans wages on the Nova Scotia farms have stagnated.

Originally Posted by Richard

They were hiring Micmacs and Labradorians only recently now that they bring in Mexicans wages on the Nova Scotia farms have stagnated.

Yes. This is fairly recent. Maybe ten or fifteen years. I use to have a couple friends who worked on xmas tree farms....and also to transport the trees down to the cities. This work was always done by Americans. It never paid super high wages....but it was not that bad either...blue collar.