In its ongoing investigations into the migrant worker situation in Ontario, the Globe and Mail has learned that “the federal government allowed some employers of migrant farm workers to submit three-year-old housing inspection reports in order to secure labour during the pandemic, instead of requiring up-to-date evidence of compliance with the temporary foreign worker program.
“As well, for a six-week period at the outset of COVID-19, the government stopped conducting housing inspections under the TFW program altogether. When the audits resumed, they were done remotely.”
More than 1,000 migrant worker have been infected with COVID-19. The on-farm hot spots rank second only to nursing homes in the severity of COVID-19 outbreaks.
“While Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) has received 32 COVID-19-related complaints regarding the program in the agri-food sector since March, not a single farm has so far been found in violation of several key pandemic-related rules,” reports the newspaper.
“ For example, employer-provided accommodations must allow workers to keep a distance of two metres, and employees must be paid for their mandatory quarantine upon arrival in Canada.”
