The days when it was easy to hire a farm hand passed over 50 years ago, and in 1966 the federal government developed the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program.
Since the 264 Jamaicans hired that year, the number of farm workers and temporary foreign workers in Canadian agriculture has swelled to 60,000 a year, with 250,000 in the United States.
The importance of foreign farm workers to Canada is highlighted by COVID-19. Some countries refused to allow their citizens to leave. The requirement for 14 days of self-isolation once here delayed seeding plans.
Most of the foreign farm workers are in the vegetable, fruit growing, and meat industries. They need to have two years of farm experience before coming here.
The federal government is providing $2,000 per worker to cover the costs of self-isolation.
Farm Credit Canada (FCC) and some governments have suggested hiring unskilled workers from the large amount of suddenly unemployed and students out of school over the pandemic.
An FCC bulletin outlines the need for training of the unskilled, particularly in safe practices; a number of online tools for safe training exist.
The bulletin points out that new employees haven’t developed bad habits and encourages some form of workers’ compensation as protection for liability.
Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
