EI changes | Ottawa’s proposed changes to employment insurance could make shortage worse
Canadian agriculture is facing a labour shortage of at least 30,000 skilled and unskilled workers, says the chair of the Canadian Agricultural Human Resources Council.
Merv Wiseman told MPs on the House of Commons human resources committee last week that recent changes proposed to the Employment Insurance program will make the problem worse by forcing seasonal agricultural workers to take full-time jobs when they become available, reducing the availability of experienced farm workers.
He said the CAHRC surveyed some of its 300,000 agricultural members across the country about the EI changes.
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“There’s been an awful lot of absolute anxiety and stress and belief that there will be a net total loss of labour pool as well as skills,” he said.
Wiseman predicted farmers will be driven to bring in more dependable foreign workers.
“I think that runs counter to what the objectives are from the EI program as I see it.”
However, he said he was not proposing that EI continue to support seasonal agricultural workers if they can land better full-time jobs.
He said agriculture employs 300,000 workers if they are available, but there is a gap of 30,000 jobs with no workers to fill them.
He said employee expertise and work ethic are required on his silver fox farm in North Harbour, N.L., over the six month breeding season, so he brings in experienced Polish workers.
Wiseman complained that the government produces contradictory and often unreliable data about the extent of the agricultural labour market.
He also said a recent budget decision to cut funding for sectoral councils within two years will cripple the industry’s ability to figure out how many workers are needed and then lobby for policies that can help fix the problem.
He said the CAHRC will be trying to figure out how it can survive to do the work that industry needs it to do.
“I hope there’s a message embedded there somewhere that we will be soliciting support from the government to continue with the kind of work we have been doing.”
Wiseman said the 10 percent worker shortage reported by agriculture is double the rate reported in the general economy.
CAHRC executive director Portia MacDonald-Dewhirst told MPs the government does not collect credible data to help the industry determine what is needed and help the government know the extent of the problem that needs fixing. Agriculture Canada figures show one industry picture and Statistics Canada another.
She said the problem for farmers is to find required workers, train them and then retain them.
Conservative MP Joe Daniel wondered why the CAHRC was not collecting its own data on worker shortages rather than relying on government departments to do it and then complaining that they were not doing it well enough.
“We have collected our own research, but this is about ensuring efficiencies across the system,” MacDonald-Dewhirst said.
“It’s inefficient if StatsCan is collecting its own information and every province is collecting its own information and every agency is collecting their own information. What we’re advocating for is a consolidated and considered approach where we can all benefit from that same information.”
