The vital foreign workers
The topic of the Temporary Foreign Worker program is at the centre of much discussion right now. The program is described as temporary, but in practice, it is far from temporary. Workers often return year after year to the same farm operations; they are part of organized work teams, they are given responsibilities, they develop specialized skills, expertise… in short, they are relied on. In 2021, at least 18,000 people were expected to come to work in the agricultural sector in Quebec, the majority of whom would work in vegetable production, but also in greenhouses, nurseries, floriculture and fruit production.
Producers are clear: “There isn’t any specialized labour available here, and that’s regardless of the wages offered.” – Winegrower from the Eastern Townships
A cumbersome process
Farmers are left stranded; they need to find extra pairs of hands to help them. That’s where the Temporary Foreign Worker program comes in. I was immediately told about the “bureaucratic mess” involved in making such a request: endless waiting, red tape, files rejected after months of waiting…
“As a producer, this process is extremely overwhelming. I lost hours of work dealing with this when I was supposed to be working on my crop planning, and my application was finally denied in July after 8 months of waiting. My season has been very difficult, it’s been a real ordeal.” —Montérégie Market Gardener.
A lack of understanding of our profession?
The worst part of it all is that all this work must be repeated every year. The consequences of such a complex program are real, I have heard of delays in planting dates, financial losses of thousands of dollars, exhaustion, and most of all, a feeling that our work is not considered important.
The main takeaway from these stories is a complete disregard for the agricultural reality. Our sector involves circumstances that must be understood by the governmental authorities: time constraints. There is seasonality, a temporality, which is inextricable from the agricultural world. Particularly when we think of the market garden sector, for which delaying the arrival of an employee by only a few weeks has tragic consequences for the whole production season. In Quebec, the production window is very small for numerous farmers, and this must be understood by the public authorities for them to reach their production objectives.
The question is quite simple: is it really asking too much to hope for bureaucratic relief for the agricultural sector within government? What if we were to consider making life easier for the people who break their backs to feed us? I throw the question up in the air… and I can only hope it makes its way to the air-conditioned offices of the people who run these programs…
Sources: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220613/dq220613d-fra.htm