Some people who have posted comments here did not understand the issue.
First of all, this whole affair concerns only foreign pilots who come to work to Canada on TEMPORARY short term contracts, 4, 5 or 6 months and who work in Canada with a validated Foreign licence. It does NOT concern foreign pilots who are hired by a Canadian airline on a full time basis with a Canadian Landed Immigrant Permit and who obtain Transport Canada licences.
The Temporary Foreign pilots who came to work in Canada at Sunwing or Canjet came under one of two Immigration regulations.
The first is the reciprocity rule. It states that Foreigners can come and work in Canada if an equal number of Canadian pilots go to work overseas as a result. The technical term they use is "must have a zero labour impact". The idea is that 50 European pilots would come to Canada in Winter, which would allow 50 Canadian pilots go work to Europe in the Summer. It seems that this rule was not respected by the Canadian airlines involved and that the number of foreign pilots who came to work in Canada under this rule far exceeded the number of Canadians who went to work overseas as a result. There are even rumors that the new EASA licencing regulations will exacerbate this problem although I do not know if this is true.
The second Immigration rule under which some temporary foreign pilots came to work in Canada was the Labour Market Opinion (LMO) rule. That rule requires the Canadian employer prove to HRSDC (a Labour Ministry in Canada) that there is a shortage of qualified pilots in Canada, after which which HRSDC authorizes Immigration Canada to provide x number of foreign pilots with temporary work visas. The way they have done this is to advertise short term contracts requiring that applicants be Type-Rated and current on the Boeing 737NG. When no pilots filling the requirements applied, HRSDC issued an LMO authorizing Immigration Canada to issue temporary work permits to foreigners to fill in the void.
Take that situation as seen by a Canadian 15,000 hour, ex-Boeing 757 Captain with defunct Skyservice who has been out of a job and who lives in Toronto where the temp job is based. He is not allowed to apply because Sunwing does not want to train him on the 737NG to SAVE MONEY.
The LMO rule is not meant to be used to allow airlines to SAVE MONEY by not having to pay for Type-ratings, but to fill a genuine labour shortage. The fact that pilots like this un-employed highly experienced 757 captain exist prove that there is no labour shortage for pilots in Canada.
So the real reason Sunwing is requesting LMOs from HRSDC for temporary foreign pilots is to save money on training. If they are allowed to do this, all other airlines will be able to claim the same (Type-ratings) to justify hiring foreigners that are already Type-rated on the aircraft they fly. If that is allowed, there will no longer be any Canadians flying for any Canadian airline in the country.
That is why all major pilot unions in Canada (ACPA, ALPA, Westjet's pilot's association, even Sunwing's) and most airlines in Canada (excluding Sunwing) oppose this practice and support the spirit of the petition.
Last edited by Minorite invisible; 9th May 2012 at 13:40.