A level of uneasiness was to be ex-pected following last week’s announcement that Alberta was bringing in major changes to farm worker regulations.
The province plans to make workers compensation benefits mandatory for all farm workers, ensure all farms and ranches comply with Occupation Health and Safety (OH&S) rules and provide regulations to permit all farm workers to form unions and collectively bargain.
Those who live and work in rural areas don’t dispute the good intentions of trying to keep farm workers safe, but unease has arisen over what we don’t yet know: what the impact of the changes will be.
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The first change, making workers’ compensation mandatory, is an idea that makes sense. Farm workers deserve the same coverage as other workers in Canada. Any less is simply unjust. It also protects farm owners from potential lawsuits in the event of an employee accident.
Alberta’s planned OH&S changes are of greater concern.
Allowing inspectors onto farms raises bona fide worries that a new sack of added costs and bureaucracy is about to be dumped onto farmers’ shoulders.
Will farmers suddenly be faced with hefty renovation expenses to bring facilities or equipment into compliance under an unnecessarily strict code?
Will the cycles of farming be respected when it comes to managing overtime hours during busy harvest and calving seasons?
Farmer suspicions should not be lightly brushed aside.
However, for now the provincial government is saying the right things. It has scheduled town hall meetings and has promised to consult widely with farmers and others in the industry before new rules are brought in at the start of 2017.
Both premier Rachel Notley and jobs minister Lori Sigurdson have said they understand the unique nature of farming and the need to ensure the rules do not become overly onerous.
That may be easier said than done.
Farmers represent a wide diversity of people, types and sizes of operations, the number of seasonal workers used and the relative geographical isolation in which they carry out their work. Great flexibility will be required. There is no one-size-fits- all solution.
Other proposed changes around the rights of farm workers to unionize are likely to have only a small effect outside of large operations with significant numbers of employees.
Alberta is one of only four provinces, along with Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan, that lacks mandatory workers compensation coverage.
Alberta is the only province to provide no form of labour relations coverage for farm and ranch workers.
Alberta is the only province that ex-empts farms and ranches from employment standards and OH&S rules.
By being so late into the game, Alberta has a unique opportunity to draw upon the best of what works in other jurisdictions across Canada.
It can go from being behind the times to being a role model with one properly thought-out piece of legislation.
Let’s hope they get it right.
