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CELPIP Practice Reading: Reading for Viewpoints ID: #60264 Hard An Island That Needs Hands

Read the following editorial from a website.

Five years ago, three international companies kept about six hundred people employed on our island: a Norwegian-owned seafood processor, an insurance claims office and a call centre that answered for a European airline. Two of them are gone, and the money their staff spent in our shops left with them. Now the one plant still operating cannot find enough workers, and Ottawa is reviewing how quickly employers in regions like ours may bring in workers from abroad. We think easing those permits is necessary, but only if it comes with rules that protect the people who already live here.

Kerensa Juneau, who owns that remaining plant, argues that permits come so slowly that half a season is over before the workers arrive. She advertised forty jobs on the island last spring and filled only eleven, and she says that without faster approvals the plant will close, taking its local jobs with it. Umberto Halloran, president of the plant workers’ union local, does not oppose foreign workers, but he warns that permits tying a worker to one employer invite abuse, because a worker who complains can be sent home. He wants every permit holder paid the union rate and free to change employers within the same industry.

Farhan Ibrahimi, the island’s economic development officer, says the debate is too focused on one plant. What the island really lost, he argues, was its international firms, and he wants a campaign to attract companies that can serve clients around the world from here. He adds that permit workers should have a clear path to permanent residency, since people who expect to stay buy homes, join teams and start businesses. Elspeth Waterhouse, president of the community college, warns that easy permits remove any reason for employers to train local young people. She would accept faster approvals if part of every permit fee went into a fund for training island residents.

In our view, Juneau’s figures show that permits must move faster, because a plant that cannot hire will close. Halloran’s warning and Waterhouse’s fund show us the conditions. We recommend that Ottawa speed up permits for regions that have lost a major employer, provided that permit holders earn the local rate and may change employers within their industry, a share of each fee pays for training residents, and those who want to stay are offered a path to residency. Ibrahimi’s campaign for new firms deserves provincial support too, but it will take years, and the plant needs workers this spring.

Using the drop-down menu (▾), choose the best option according to the information given on the website.

This editorial is mainly about 1.
.

Who most clearly worries that some workers may be afraid to complain? 2.
.

Farhan Ibrahimi’s position would most likely be supported by 3.
.

What outcome does Elspeth Waterhouse’s condition call for? 4.
.

The editorial treats Farhan Ibrahimi’s campaign as 5.
.

The following is a comment by a visitor to the website page. Complete the comment by choosing the best option to fill in each blank.

I came to this island from the Philippines on a work permit nine years ago, and today I am a permanent resident who coaches a junior hockey team on Saturday mornings. Your first paragraph says the three international firms once employed 6.
, and I remember how busy the ferry was in those years. Kerensa Juneau says she advertised forty jobs on the island last spring and 7.
, which matches what I hear after church. The development officer wants to attract 8.
, and my nephew on the mainland would come home tomorrow for work like that. I did not know that the call centre used to answer for 9.
, since everyone here just called it the phone place. Elspeth Waterhouse, who 10.
, deserves a seat at every meeting on this.

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