B52 wrote:I recall being a foreign pilot getting my first work permit in Canada
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This is not directed against foreign pilots and never has been. For starters, I am an immigrant from Haiti. This is not about foreign pilots who come to seek work and establish themselves in Canada.
This is about Canadian employers who go to the Government of Canada and claim that they cannot find a qualified applicant in this country in order to favor a foreign pilot over a Canadian one. Any excuse to overlook Canadians is accepted.
Some claim lack of a type rating.
Some claim lack of fighter experience.
Some require a degree in test flying from the test flying University.
Others require fluent Mandarin as language requirement.
Any excuse made up to bypass a Canadian over whatever foreign pilot the employer is keen to hire seems to be accepted.
The effort put in convincing ESDC that the Canadian pilot is not qualified is a mere formality. Just put an ad on Job bank and on AvCanada for two weeks with whatever requirements you can think of and then go tell ESDC that no qualified applicants applied. Even if a dozen Canadian Mandarin speaking, fighter qualified pilots with a PHD degree from the MIT Test Pilot Academy did apply, how would ESDC know that the employer just didn't send their Resumes in the shredder ? They have to take the employers' word for it and have no way in verifying. Their normal manner to check is to look in the ESDC computer database to see how many Mandarin-Speaking Fighter Experienced Pilots who are Holders of a Degree from a Test Pilot Pilot University are collecting Employment Insurance in Canada. Their computer will correctly indicate NONE. That gives them the green light to issue the LMO.
If one of these pilots decided to contact Gilles Hudicourt who in turn would send this guy's Resume to ESDC to show them that this one guy was Canadian and filled all the requirements but wasn't hired, all the employer has do to justify not hiring this qualified Canadian is to tell ESDC that their inquires about this candidate revealed he had a character flaw. Why else would he be un-employed with all these qualifications ? They might even interview the guy for good measure.
It's all a great scam. It we let it continue, it wont be long before more and more Canadian employers find an ever increasing excuse to hire foreign pilots to take jobs that should go to Canadians.
Let's make a stand!
Except in very limited cases, to work as a pilot in Canada, one should at the very least be a landed Immigrant. And one should hold a Canadian Licence. Not an FLVC.