Producers and others in Canada’s agricultural sector have another week to respond to an agriculture labour survey.
In early April, the Canadian Agricultural Human Resources Council (CAHRC) launched an online survey to gauge the “post pandemic labour market situation” in the industry.
In a news release, CAHRC said it hoped to hear from 800 Canadian farmers, agricultural workers and groups in the sector.
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The council has extended the deadline to May 7, to solicit more responses.
“The Canadian agriculture industry has been experiencing a growing labour shortage that is turning to a labour crisis. The update to this research will provide a measurement of what that labour shortage is currently and forecast what the future holds,” said Jennifer Wright, CAHRC executive director. “This data is often used to inform policy, funding, training and education programs and labour market information assessments. The more participation we have in this survey the better the data will be.”
Previous CAHRC surveys have produced detailed data on the severity of the labour shortfall and related impacts on agriculture.
For instance, CAHRC reported Canadian farmers lost $2.9 billion in potential earnings in 2020, because of labour shortages exacerbated by COVID-19.
“Two in five employers surveyed were not able to find all the workers that they needed. Of these, 60 percent experienced productions delay and lost sales,” CAHRC said in 2021.
A major issue during the pandemic was getting Temporary Foreign Workers from in time for the growing season. Plus, the difficulty of hiring domestic workers who were receiving CERB (the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit) of $500 per week.
The survey can be found at https://cahrc-ccrha.ca/agri-lmi-survey.
It takes about 15 minutes to complete.
Contact robert.arnason@producer.com
