The shortage of labour in Canada’s agriculture and food processing sector is well documented. Meat packers, beekeepers, hog producers and large grain farms desperately need reliable and skilled employees.
Yet it’s unlikely to come up during the federal election campaign, said Rod Scarlett, Canadian Honey Council executive director.
That’s because politicians don’t want to touch the temporary foreign workers topic.
“I’m not certain that during the election that type of an issue will warrant a lot of discussion… because it’s not a vote getter,” Scarlett said, from his office in Sherwood Park, Alta.
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“It’s not something that everybody will pay attention to or will ring positively with a lot of voters who … believe we should be hiring local talent.”
The federal government amended the Temporary Foreign Worker Program in June of 2014, following alleged cases of some businesses abusing the program.
The government placed limits on the percentage of foreign employees at a workplace, increased applicant processing fees and shortened the length of time a temporary foreign worker could spend in Canada from two years to one.
Scarlett said it’s a common perception that commercial beekeepers and other businesses aren’t doing enough to hire locals.
Beekeepers have said there aren’t enough people in rural areas willing to take seasonal jobs at an apiary and recruiting and retaining employees consumes a large amount of time.
“For commercial beekeepers, it’s probably one of the top two (management) issues (along with bee health),” Scarlett said.
Ron Davidson, director of trade, government and media relations with the Canadian Meat Council, said the agricultural labour issue is much broader than meat processors struggling to find employees and the inter-related decline in productivity.
He said the lack of labour is compromising the future of rural Canada. Many immigrants use the TFW program as a pathway to become permanent residents of Canada. They then bring their families to Canada and repopulate rural communities that need more people.
“If you talk to places like Brooks, Alta, or Brandon or Neepawa, Man., they were on side (with TFWP),” Davidson said. “They were getting their schools filled, they were getting their health services back.”
Davidson said the agri-food sector has to re-brand the issue, so Canadians and politicians understand the labour shortfall.
“This perception in Canadian’s minds was created through a very emotional and persistent weeks and months of (negative press) on the Temporary Foreign Worker Program,” he said. “It’s really hard to turn around an emotionally based perception with hard facts.”
Davidson said it’s challenging to get politicians engaged because TFWP may as well be a four-letter word.
“There is huge perception problem with the term temporary foreign worker… and we are paying a price for that,” Davidson said. “People have such a negative connotation of temporary foreign workers that none of the (political) parties really want to talk about it.”
robert.arnason@producer.com
