Changes to the Employment Insurance program that tighten eligibility is a frightening development for many farmers, says the chair of the Canadian Agricultural Human Resources Council.
Merv Wiseman’s silver fox farm near North Harbour, N.L., is the biggest in the world and largely dependent on 22 seasonal workers hired during pelt harvest season.
They are experienced workers who keep the million-dollar fur marketing operation in business, but Wiseman, who is also president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Agriculture, said the workers traditionally apply for EI between harvest seasons, when local part-time jobs in rural Newfoundland are scarce or non-existent.
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“If they moved away to St. John’s or Alberta or whatever to find work in the off-season, I would lose my workforce,” he said during the council’s annual forum in Ottawa.
“They likely wouldn’t come back. It’s frightening for the future of my farm. They are skilled workers, and I don’t know where I would replace them.”
Wiseman said EI reforms could do that. EI changes introduced by the federal government require recipients to be actively looking for work and be willing to take a job an hour’s drive away or more, even at reduced pay, or face losing EI eligibility.
Greg Webster, who produces berries, rhubarb, dry beans and winter rye producer near Cambridge, N.S., said his third generation farm could be sharply affected.
“I have real concerns on how our seasonal workers are being targeted in this program change, and without seasonal workers in horticulture, we’re done,” he said.
Without a steady supply of seasonal workers to supplement family members, farmers will have to increasingly rely on use of foreign seasonal workers under a federal program.
Human resources development minister Diane Finlay, who is overseeing the changes, has argued the changes are prudent and not targeted at agriculture.
