E-7343: Petition to the House of Commons in Parliament assembled — Canadian Petition Tracker
Canonical URL: https://petitiontracker.ca/petition/e-7343
Track petition E-7343 — "Petition to the House of Commons in Parliament assembled" sponsored by Aaron Gunn. 1,024 signatures and counting. See signature growth trends and provincial breakdown on PetitionTracker.ca.
Petition Text
Petition to the House of Commons in Parliament assembled
Whereas:
• Transport Canada administers Reciprocal Arrangements (RAs) under the Canada Shipping Act without a clear, transparent, or accountable governance framework;
• The current government approach allows large marine corporations to become dependent on ongoing access to foreign labour in a manner similar to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, without sufficient safeguards to protect Canadian wage standards, career advancement pathways, or sustained investment in domestic marine training;
• Maritime unions have raised concerns that this approach weakens Canada’s limited marine training institutions and erodes the long-term availability of a trained Canadian marine workforce;
• Continued reliance on international mariners through these arrangements negatively impacts Canada’s ability to be self reliant in advancing seafaring skills for both a domestic merchant marine supply chain, Pacific Pilotage Authority, and the Department of National Defence from coast to coast; and
• These arrangements are expanded without regular public reporting or parliamentary oversight, raising concerns about their alignment with Canada’s long-term marine workforce capacity, safety objectives, and the practical integrity of cabotage protections.
We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to pause further expansion of Reciprocal Arrangements and undertake a review of existing agreements, with the objective of establishing a coherent, transparent framework that supports Canadian workforce development, training capacity, safety, and marine sovereignty.