Farmers
and meat packers both want the federal government to make it easier
for them to hire temporary farm workers.
Resolutions
passed at the annual meeting of the Canadian Federation of
Agriculture this week calling for an increase in the total allowed
entry and to allow them to accumulate more than the maximum of 48
months.
This
comes in the context of tens of thousands of Syrian refugees flooding
into Canada, plus promises that more refugees will be welcomed from
other camps, such as Africans waiting for decades in one of the
world’s worst camps in Kenya.
"There
are some jobs that we can't get Canadians to do," Norm Hall,
president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan,
said Wednesday.
"Having
enough employees to get the job done in a timely matter makes more
money for agriculture."
The
federal Seasonal Agriculture Worker Program already allows foreign
workers to be hired in Canada for up to eight months each year in
specific industries such as the tobacco, livestock, fruit and
vegetable sectors.
The
program is open to workers from Mexico and some Caribbean countries.
Hall's
group and other farm organizations such as the Union des Producteurs
Agricoles want Ottawa to expand the program to include other
commodities such as grain, oilseeds and maple syrup.
Hall
said there is a growing shortage of farm hands as older producers
retire and younger people leave rural areas or seek other jobs. But
farmers who remain on the land are hoping to expand production.
"There
are just not enough farm boys left," Hall said. "It would
mean getting the crop in on time, getting it sprayed in time and then
getting it harvested on time."
Foreign
workers hired under the program are limited to basic jobs such as
running farm machinery, looking after animals, planting and
harvesting.
They
can come back to Canada year after year until they reach the
program's cumulative limit of 48 months.
