Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program has long been a sore spot for farmers in part because of rules imposed because a different industry misused the system. Now it appears the Liberal government is making a move in the right direction that may make a difference.
George Matheson, chair of Manitoba Pork says it appears adjustments by the new federal government to Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program will make it more responsive to the needs of the pork industry.
Hog producers discussed the issue at the MPC fall producer meetings in Niverville and Portage la Prairie.
Matheson says working in a swine barn can be hard dirty work and a lot of young people would prefer to do something else. Also, many of the barns are in remote areas away from urban areas but many people prefer to live close to major centres so it’s been difficult to access domestic help for quite some time.
“On the federal scene, with the government now in power for about a year, one of the big issues we had was the source of labour that we need for our plants and for our barns often has been coming from the Temporary Foreign Worker Program,” he said. “The previous government made adjustments that did not work for us, making it more difficult for us to access a labour source. This federal government, we feel will allow these foreign workers to stay in the country longer, hopefully,to gain some English skills that will allow them to apply for citizenship and then become full time residents and part of this country.”
Matheson says on the processors’ side the previous government had restricted the per cent of foreign workers that could work at the plant and this new government has expanded that so that more foreign workers can work in Canadian pork processing plants. This government seems to be stepping back and making adjustments so that the Temporary Foreign Worker Program can work for the pork industry.
Matheson says both producers and processors had relied on the Temporary Foreign Worker Program to fill positions that would have remained vacant and the changes being made to the program now are a step in the right direction.
Ron Davidson, the director of international trade, government and media relations of the Canadian Meat Council says many of the changes recommended in a Parliamentary Committee report on Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program would be very helpful to the red meat industry.
The feds are now reviewing a House of Commons parliamentary committee report on Canada’s TFWP released in mid-September, which makes 21 recommendations and is expected to respond in early January.
Davidson says many of the recommendations, if applied, could be very helpful to the industry.
“For example, they have spoken about increasing the speed and efficiency with which labour market impact assessments are undertaken. That would be very helpful. They have recommended a trusted employer program. This is an employer who has used the program in previous years and has demonstrated the ability or the willingness to follow the program requirements. There’s a potential to permit minor modifications so, if you want to give a temporary foreign worker a raise, you can do that. It’s odd that we are being prevented from providing raises to foreign workers when they’re in the country. That did not make a lot of sense.
“They’ve also recommended that the program have more specific application to reflect the realities market needs in particular sectors and regions. That’s precisely what we’re talking about. We’re emphasizing in particular abattoirs in rural environments and looking at the one shot fits all just isn’t living in reality. There’s a reference to expanding the definition of primary agriculture. If primary agriculture is expanded to include primary processing, that would be helpful to the meat industry.”
Davidson says there are recommendations that could be problematic, depending on their interpretation, but he says for the most part these recommendations look pretty positive. •
— By Harry Siemens
