Manitoba beekeepers hope to fend off an unexpected cost as they work toward bringing in foreign workers for the next season.
They want agricultural representatives to push the federal government to intercede with the Philippines government to drop a US$750 “exit clearance” fee from workers who have not been in Canada in the previous six months.
“This largely would be a government-to-government ask,” said Paul Gregory, an Interlake beekeeper, during the Keystone Agricultural Producers’ annual meeting Jan. 26.
The problem is just another wrinkle from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many temporary foreign workers for Canadian honey, hog and dairy operations couldn’t get to Canada for the 2020 season because of travel restrictions, including many who worked on the farms in 2019.
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For those from the Philippines, who sometimes make up a majority of the workforce on some farms, the added cost is an avoidable disincentive for bringing workers to Canada.
“We simply could not bring our workers in,” said Gregory, who also brings in workers from Nicaragua.
KAP delegates voted in favour of a resolution that calls on the organization to lobby the Canadian government and work with the Canadian Honey Council and Canadian Federation of Agriculture to encourage the Filipino government to drop the charge for workers who came to Canada in 2019.
The only reason they didn’t come in 2020 is the pandemic and that shouldn’t trigger an additional cost for Canadian farmers and a disincentive for hiring Filipino workers.
