“Passing the buck” is developing an ironically opposite meaning in Canada’s economic displacement.

This spring should complete the outsourcing of jobs from Sears to the Philippines and India. The Royal Bank faced public backlash for making a similar effort last April. Other companies have quietly outsourced: Heinz, Kelloggs, CIBC, and Dupont Canada, just to name a few.

Companies expect Canadians to purchase their products while failing to provide Canadians with the opportunity to earn an income producing those products. Where do they think that Canadians will get the money to buy products from them…the tooth fairy? Or perhaps the near-minimum wage paid by Wal-Mart and McDonald’s? Where is their corporate conscience? It seems self-evident that if these companies seek to benefit from the Canadian consumer marketplace, they have a moral obligation to also participate in the Canadian workplace that makes such a marketplace possible.

When will the cheap labour in the current “free market” outsourcing nations become too high-priced? When will these greedy corporations move their production to nations with even worse workplace standards like the People’s Republic of China (PRC)?

The PRC has already made many infamous contributions to our marketplace: the toothpaste that had...what was it...diethylene glycol (brake fluid or hydraulic fluid coolant) in it? Tainted pet food that killed some of our pets? What about lead-painted toys? Seafood products raised in water polluted with raw sewage? Then they compensated for that pollution by using dangerous drugs and chemicals, many of which are banned in the US?

An article on World Net Daily said Chinese-made products “choke, burn, drown, drop, trap.” Portable baby swings that trap youngsters. Swimming pool ladders that break. Faulty baby carriers that result in babies falling out, even with cracked skulls as a consequence. Easy-Bake Ovens that trap children’s fingers in openings. Oscillating tower fans with faulty wiring. Exploding air pumps. Oil-filled electric heaters that burned down homes. Circular saws with faulty blade guards. Is the People’s Republic of China really a country we want to trust with meeting our food needs? With supplying our non-food goods?

This is the end result when labour costs alone drive corporate decisions on locating production plants and when no regard is given to the responsible workplace standards and safeguards that govern business operations in Canada.

We seem trapped into paying subsistence wages to the people now doing our jobs while Canadians face the disheartening effects of chronic unemployment. In Canadian stores, merchants and offshore suppliers all but force us to buy goods produced by the very corporations that closed our plants and cut off our source of income. We answer the phone and are accosted by telephone solicitors who have taken our jobs. Our IT questions are routed to foreign countries with their cheap labour while Canadians are “on the dole.”

I am tired of being forced to support child labour and slave labour in the nations with which Canada trades: practices that result in cheap goods that undercut our industries. I would rather buy Canadian goods—if possible—or at least goods from another free nation, in this way supporting the workers in democratic states. I would rather pay more and put a Canadian back to work than support countries exploiting their own citizens.

If we continue to let corporations pass the buck – “you employ them, we’ll just sell to them” –then we will no longer have the bucks to pass over the counter to buy anything but the barest of essentials. Multi-national corporations need to get the message that they cannot make money selling goods to Canadians without spending a good chunk of it in the same market.

The Christian Heritage Party policies call for a Tariff Review Board to monitor major economic factors (e.g. foreign government subsidies, oppressive labour conditions, unfair competition, and environmental mismanagement), which contribute to the low price of those foreign commodities competing with Canadian-made products.

Now that’s a better solution.

Join CHP Canada and support our Canadian economy.

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