EDMONTON – Last June, hog farmer Herman Simons applied to hire a temporary foreign worker through a government program for his hog barn.
He was told it would take about 16 weeks. It’s December and he’s not holding his breath he’ll find a worker soon.
“It’s a work in progress,” Simons, chair of Alberta Pork, said during a discussion of a federal and provincial government program to help farmers attract staff.
Like thousands of other farmers across the Prairies, the Tees, Alta., hog farmer is having difficulty finding staff. Few people want to work for the lower wages and the less than ideal conditions inside a hog barn.
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Stuart McKie, policy specialist with Alberta Pork, said the group is working with Alberta Agriculture and the federal government’s Service Canada to speed up the process of hiring skilled foreign workers for Canadian hog barns.
“It’s a ludicrously long period of time to get foreign workers on your farm,” said McKie.
To hire a temporary foreign worker, an employer must prove no Canadians are willing or able to work on the farm. With that documentation, the employer applies to Service Canada for a Labour Market Opinion (LMO), or authorization to hire a worker. It takes about 25 weeks to get authorization to get a worker from another country and another 25 weeks before the worker is able to come to Canada.
Alberta Pork is working with Service Canada and the provincial government to try and approve a bulk LMO, where Alberta Pork would apply on behalf of a group of producers to speed up the application.
Alberta already has group LMO applications for other industries, like welders and snowboard instructors, but because of Alberta’s employment regulations, farm workers aren’t included.
“There are just not industry standards,” said McKie.
Together the group developed a list of hog barn positions, titles and suggested salary to help standardize and speed up the application process.
Ab Barry with Alberta Agriculture said the roughly 95 temporary foreign workers now working in Alberta hog barns have been amazingly successful.
Most are professional with years of experience in barns in Mexico or the Philippines.
“If you want to hire someone and keep them, go after someone who has skills and experience and thinks of himself as a skilled worker,” said Barry.
With the success of the temporary foreign workers already in large hog barns, mid-size operators are now starting the laborious process for an LMO, said McKie.
“We’re trying to act to alleviate the labour pressures, but if it doesn’t come soon, it could become an animal welfare issue,” he said.
“It’s got to be quick.”
McKie hopes by the new year Service Canada will allow Alberta Pork to apply for group LMOs and help producers ease their work burden.
“We feel it’s tantalizingly close at the moment,” said McKie.
