Want to do business in Canada?
Posted by Tyler Kinch on August 7th, 2006
I was having a discussion with my coworkers the other day about why I boycott
Wal-Mart. I stated my number one reason is that they force manufacturers to seek out cheaper labour to keep prices down. This forces the manufacturers to set up shop overseas and pay out slave wages. I am against these slave wages, and I am sure most Canadians are against them too.
So it got me thinking. We have laws for Canadian businesses. We have minimum wage in each province (Which isn’t adequate, but that’s for another article.) and we have regulations that businesses have to follow. Why not extend this legislation overseas? If you want to do business in Canada, you should have to follow Canadian Laws overseas and abroad. I’m sure this would go against NAFTA and/or other trade agreements in someway, but we should be working for the betterment of Canadian and World Citizens. And if agreements are making it possible for corporations to pay out slave wages, I say these agreements are not worth following, or they need some serious revising.
So why can’t we extend Canadian laws overseas for corporations in Canada having operations abroad? Whether they hire the labour directly or indirectly, I think they should have to follow Canadian labour laws. The labour laws in Canada seem to have no meaning if corporations can just outsource jobs elsewhere to get around the laws. The labour laws of Canada are meant to protect Canadian workers. If we don’t enforce the laws on Corporations that are outsourcing their jobs, then workers in Canada and around the world become less protected.
October 2nd, 2006 at 6:34 am
Good observation, your ideas are right on.