The NDP's mining critic wants Chinese migrant workers coming to BC for coal mining jobs to be denied entry into the country until some things are sorted out.
Doug Donaldson says Jobs minister Pat Bell has said he is investigating claims the workers were charged to take the work, but "In the meantime I think that while this investigation is underway the temporary foreign workers for this coal mine in the Northeast shouldn't be allowed to come into the country I am not putting them down in anyway what so ever but if this is an illegal practice we need to investigate this before allowing the mining company and the provincial government to proceed."
Donaldson says it was indictment of her own jobs plan when the Premier said why train now for jobs that haven't materialized yet.
"Mining and mineral exploration are meant to be a large part of where the employment comes from in the jobs plan and rightly so but when the Premier said she won't provide training now so BC people could have the best opportunity for those jobs in the future then I think that is a terrible indictment."
He also disputes claims there are no BC workers skilled enough to take the mining jobs.
Donaldson says the Premier is overlooking workers in other sectors with transferable skills.
"I was at an underground mine, New Afton near Kamloops in June, the mine manager and I stopped a worker who had been working on one of the big machineries underground he had come over from forestry he had transferable skills so there are people in this province looking for work who have transferable skills who do not need to be trained up from scratch."
After this, Donaldson called our newsroom back, wanting to clarify his comments.
Donaldson says he is calling on Jobs Minister Pat Bell to expedite the investigation into the allegations so they can be addressed before the workers get to Canada.
"And I think that's the important part that Minister Bell came to a trade agreement with Chinese mine interests around this project and so he needs to address these allegations before the workers actually come to Canada."
The difference between this and his earlier comments -- he's now saying the investigation should be done before workers are set to get here, rather than allowing the probe to take longer and deny workers entry until it's finished.