Canada reviews foreign-worker scheme amid China mine row

The Canadian government has announced a review of its programme for temporary foreign workers. It follows the controversial decision to import hundreds of Chinese coal miners for a Chinese-funded project in northern British Columbia.

Diane Finley, minister of human resources and skills development, said the project's job advertisements seeking miners with Putonghua skills suggested that attempts to recruit Canadian staff had not been sincere.

The South China Morning Post was the first to report last month on the existence of the advertisements, posted in the name of Vancouver-based mining company Canadian Dehua International Mines Group.

Canadian Dehua - founded by Chinese-born businessman Liu Naishun - plans to open four underground coal mines in northern British Columbia in partnership with investors in China, with the first batch of 201 Chinese employees approved by the government to arrive this autumn, to the anger of unionists.

"Our government believes that Canadians must always have first crack at job opportunities in Canada," Finley said in a statement on Thursday. "We are not satisfied with what we have learned about the process that led to permission for hundreds of foreign workers to gain jobs at the Dehua Mines subsidiary in British Columbia.

"In particular, we are not satisfied that sufficient efforts were made to recruit or train Canadians interested in these jobs. Specifically, the requirement that applicants have skills in a foreign language does not appear to be linked to a genuine job requirement," the minister said.

The adverts, which did not specify whether Putonghua skills were a preference or a requirement, have been removed. Up to 2,000 Chinese miners could eventually be required to staff Canadian Dehua's four mines in northern British Columbia.