No need to hire foreign pilots!

[777LR]

Layoffs currently at :
CanJet
Canadian North
KFC
Pascan Aviation

Feel free to add

[timel]

Helicopter pilots market is really bad as well even for pilots with 2000 hrs.

[teacher]

There's never been a need in this country to hire foreign pilots. It's always been an employers market.

Now if your goal is to undercut your competition by operating an accordion fleet and giving yourself an unfair competitive advantage while lying to the federal authorities about the lack of qualified pilots in
Canada than yes, I guess there is a need for foreign pilots in Canada.

[Mr. North]

Layoffs currently at :
CanJet
Canadian North
KFC
Pascan Aviation

Feel free to add

North Caribou

[Gilles Hudicourt]

I agree. But this thread could also have been called "Not legal to hire Foreign Pilots" since many of these Foreign Pilots do not have a "Licence Required by Part IV" but a questionable piece of paper called a "Foreign Licence Validation Certificate".

702.65 No air operator shall permit a person to act
and no person shall act as a flight crew member in an
aircraft unless the person
(a) holds the licence and ratings required by Part IV
or, where the air operator is the holder of an air operator
certificate issued in accordance with the North
American Free Trade Agreement, the equivalent foreign
licence and ratings;

703.88 (1) Subject to subsections (6) and (7), no air
operator shall permit a person to act and no person shall
act as a flight crew member in an aircraft unless the person
(a) holds the licence and ratings required by Part IV;

704.108 (1) Subject to subsection (6), no air operator
shall permit a person to act and no person shall act as a
flight crew member in an aircraft unless the person
(a) holds the licence and ratings required by Part IV;

705.106 (1) Subject to subsection (3), no air operator
shall permit a person to act and no person shall act as the
pilot-in-command, second-in-command or cruise relief
pilot of an aircraft unless the person
(a) holds the licence, ratings and endorsements required
by Part IV;

Just like in the United States

§121.383 Airman: Limitations on use of services.
(a) No certificate holder may use any person as an airman nor may any person serve as an airman unless that person—
(1) Holds an appropriate current airman certificate issued by the FAA;

and in just about every other serious country that does not allow its High Level Government Officials to sell out high paying jobs to foreigners.......

[kpkcharlie]

More layoffs handed out yesterday at Canadian North...

[Gilles Hudicourt]

I know that Canjet laid off 21 pilots in Feb and 47 more in April for a total of 68.
I know that Pascan just laid off 50 pilots.

Anyone have numbers for the other companies ? I would like to know about any any lay offs since around Oct 2014.

I will send these numbers to the Director of the Temporary Foreign Workers at ESDC, the office responsible for appoving the LMIAs under which these foreign pilots enter Canada.

Gilles

[FL020]

8 at Canadian north with already over 10 leaves. Rumour is more l/o to come. From what I understand over 20 at north caribou as well.

[sticks37]

Cariboo.

[rocket81]

Layoffs at Keewatin

[scopiton]

https://www.pilotcareercentre.com/
lots of jobs overseas.....

[Gilles Hudicourt]

We are trying to drum up support for the cause. We created a New Facebook Group

https://www.facebook.com/groups/815822155174969/

[Oxi]

How come PASCAN and Keewatin are laying off?

[DanWEC]

Why the layoffs up north? Canadian North and First Air? Dismissing the merger attempt I thought they were direct competitors? Who is taking more of the pie? Summit?
Worrisome.... Only Jazz and Encore expanding, are they driving out other regionals and driving down wages?

[PointyEngine]

Rumors of Encore flying the sky-doo up to Whitehorse over the winter. If that happens it will heavily impact local, properly paid drivers. Our own worst enemy.

[parallel60]

DanWEC,

Oil prices are having a large effect on the situation up north.

[AuxBatOn]

DanWEC,

Oil prices are having a large effect on the situation up north.

[True North]

Rumors of Encore flying the sky-doo up to Whitehorse over the winter. If that happens it will heavily impact local, properly paid drivers. Our own worst enemy.

Neither Encore nor WestJet have "sky-doos". Do you believe in the tooth fairy too?

[Gilles Hudicourt]

Yesterday, April 27th 2015, Patrice Roy, the Air Transat MEC Chair (ALPA) and myself had an appointment with Mr Alexis Conrad, the Director of the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP) Employment and Skills Developmental Canada (ESDC).

We met with Mr Conrad, with Mr Steven West, the Director of the Program Implementation Division and with Mrs Tami Steel, of Service Canada's Ontario Region.

The meeting lasted 90 minutes during which to attempted to explain to those present that there was no need in Canada for Temporary Foreign Worker Pilots in Canada and that local pilots could fill the vast majority of posts for which aircraft operators were applying for Foreign Labor.
Our kind hosts asked many questions to which we replied to the best of our abilities and they generally seemed concerned and receptive to our message.

Their main concerns was that the Aircraft Operators who apply for the Foreign Pilots generally attempt to demonstrate that they are unable to finds qualified crews for their operation and that they will be adversely affected, operationally and/or financially if the Foreign Pilots they are applying for are not made available to them. This is why they need to be certain that this is not the case before they can turn an application down, especially when ten of millions of dollars are on the line.

They also told us that this year, any LMIA application for TFW by an airline buts be made at least 6 months before the arrival of the TFW pilots, which should not only give them time to study the application, but also allow the applicant to implement a plan B should the TFW be denied.

They encourage all pilots who feel they were turned down for a job or a position for which they were qualified in favor of a Temporary Foreign Worker pilot to file a complaint to ESDC. This can be done in a confidential manner here:

http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/abou ... ting.shtml

[Gilles Hudicourt]

Good timing. This morning I received an Access to Information Request I made on May 13 2014. It took almost a year to receive it.
It contains all the approved LMO applications made by Canadian Aircraft Operators between Oct 2014 and May 13 2014, with all supporting documents. In a few days, we will publish an indexed version of same document with applicant's name in the index.
I encourage all pilots to go over this 1000+ page document to see what dubious claims Employers often make to avoid hiring qualified Canadian pilots in favor of TFW pilots:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5853ejl2jrclm ... 4.pdf?dl=0

In the document I see:

Air Labrador
Buffalo Airways
CAE
Canadian Forces
Canjet
Construction Helicopters
Cougar Helicopters
Delta heliocpters
Kentrexs International
Lachute Aviation
Phoenix Heli Flight
Pratt and Whitney
Sunwing
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp

etc

[PointyEngine]

Neither Encore nor WestJet have "sky-doos". Do you believe in the tooth fairy too?

Bombardier Q400. Believing in the tooth fairy isn't much different to believing conditions at our regionals will improve in the future...

[timel]

Georgian did use tfw.


Lachute aviation made a request for a tfw instructor at 25$/hr
Para Quebec made a request for a 1000 hr pilot with tailwheel and turbine experience and faa license at 23$/hr...

Delta helicoter, 6 tfw à 36$/hr.... For pilots with 3-5 years of experience with a CPL...

[Gilles Hudicourt]

Air Labrador had posted a ESDC mandated ad for a first officer, which required said FO to have a Transport Canada Dispatcher Licence. It seems that a foreigner who had one made the choice tilt in his favor over a qualified Canadian. Any reason a Air Labrador pilot must have a Dispatcher's Licence ?

[snoopy]

Gilles,

As stated on Vertical, and I'll say it again here...

The problem I see with this reporting system is unless a pilot knows someone on the inside we have no way of knowing whether we were not hired due to a preferred Canadian worker or a TFW. We can certainly report that we applied at the company during the LMO application period, but that's all most of us could state with any certainty.

This is kind of like closing the barn door after the horse escapes - considering it could take over a year (or more!) to obtain an ATP request. I'm pretty sure the government is well aware of this.

Besides, as I've said before, as long as employers know there is a backup source of TFW if they build a correct paper trail, it enables the employer to be choosier when considering the pool of applicants.

If the TFW option was removed entirely operators would simply have to deal with it. Businesses are faced with tough challenges all the time - like most pilots, most business owners don't throw up their hands and give up when the sh&t hits the fan. As it stands now, operators know they only have to make a bit of noise and the government quickly caves before the media gets wind if it.

Cheers,
snoopy