Federal Employment and Workforce Development Minister Randy Boissonault last week launched a three-year pilot meant to “help to address labour shortages and reduce the administrative burden for repeat employers participating in the (TFW) program who demonstrate a history of complying with program requirements.”

The pilot program, dubbed the Recognized Employer Pilot (REP), was telegraphed in the federal budget in April last year with a funding envelope of $29.3 million over three years.

Canadian employers who want to import TFWs must today fill out labour market impact assessments (LMIAs) every year, documenting an employer’s need for a TFW and that no Canadians or permanent residents are available to do the job in question.

Under the REP, however, eligible employers would have access to LMIAs valid for up to 36 months, and would also get a simplified LMIA application if they need to hire additional workers from the same occupation during the pilot.

Recognized employers under the REP would also get a Job Bank designation that confirms their “recognized” status to prospective workers.

It’s expected the pilot “will help employers better plan for their staffing needs and reduce the number of different LMIAs they need to submit over three years,” the government said in a release Aug. 8.

Under the first phase of the REP, employers in the TFW program’s primary agriculture stream can apply starting in September this year, in time for the 2024 production season. All other employers will be eligible to apply in January 2024. The window for all employer applications for REP would close in September next year.

In short, Boissonault said, the REP “will cut red tape for eligible employers — those who demonstrate the highest level of protection for workers — and make it easier for them to access the labour they need to fill jobs that are essential to Canada’s economy and food security.”

“It is vital that Canadian employers, including farmers and food processors, are able to hire the workers who are critical to food production and food security in Canada,” federal Ag Minister Lawrence MacAulay said in the same release, adding the REP should cut the “administrative burden” for eligible ag employers “while ensuring the safety of workers.”

An employer’s eligibility for REP would be assessed and determined by Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), the government said.

To take part in the REP, an employer would need to have at least three positive LMIAs for the same occupation over the past five years, from a list of occupations designated as “in-shortage” as per Canadian Occupational Projection System (COPS) data.

If an employer doesn’t get recognized status under REP, he or she will still be eligible to use the TFW program and the department would continue to assess his or her LMIA.

‘Long been asking’

Several ag groups have since hailed the launched of the REP. Fruit and Vegetable Growers of Canada president Jan VanderHout said the pilot “brings us one step closer to our goal of reducing the administrative burden faced by Canadian growers.”

Bill George, chair of the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Association labour section, said last Thursday that group’s members “have long been asking for a streamlined application process for employers with a strong history of program compliance, which makes this announcement a particularly welcome step forward.”

Chronic labour shortages in the past several decades have left some farms reliant on TFWs, “many of them working with the same people for years, if not decades, on end,” Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Keith Currie said last Thursday in a separate release.

“While we look forward to getting further details on the program, this program looks like it will reduce the administrative burden on those farmers who can demonstrate a history of compliance and years of reliability as employers.”

The REP plan follows the launch in April of a new online portal as the “primary method” for TFW employers to submit LMIAs. Moving that process online “will further improve processing and is helping employers address their labour market needs quickly,” the government said last week. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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“This is costing midsize family farms anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000 to $150,000 and upwards of that for the real large producers,” said Bill George, Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association (OFVGA) chair.

“There is not the capacity in the industry to absorb those costs. Full stop. It is just not there.”

Why it matters: The pandemic has forced new costs into the food production system and that has made it challenging for farmers.

Growers face increased costs around TFW quarantine protocols, and COVID-19 testing delays have affected production and planting schedules. Despite the increased burden, the federal government has announced that funds for the Mandatory Isolation Support Program for Temporary Foreign Workers Program will end Aug. 31. 

The program, initiated in April 2020, offered up to $1,500 in expense reimbursements to farmers, to alleviate the costs of having workers in 14-day quarantine while the Quarantine Act was in place.  

A year later, the Liberal government announced funding would roll back to $750 on June 16 and end on Aug. 31. The $2,000 non-repayable contribution to cover three-day hotel quarantine stays will also be terminated.

“The federal government’s Quarantine Act has imposed substantial additional costs on the employers of TFWs, and the (support program) has offset many of those costs, which cannot be recovered through the marketplace,” said George.

“We agree that pandemic-related programming will need to come to an end but expect the sunset of this funding support to align with the end of the quarantine requirement, and not before.” 

A federal Agriculture and Agri-Food spokesperson said the government supported farmers throughout the pandemic and dispensed more than $100 million to farm operations through the TFW isolation support program.   

With the rise in Canadian vaccination rates and an end to the crisis in sight, the spokesperson said this program and several others would cease near the end of summer once most TFWs have arrived for the season.

Other financial supports will be available to farmers, including business risk management programs, said the spokesperson. 

“(Our apple producers) start to bring in their harvest crews mid-August and into September, so certainly they will be disproportionately affected by this,” said George. “As well as a lot of greenhouse operations are bringing in workers all year long. It puts some individuals at a bit of a disadvantage or competitive disadvantage.”

The OFVGA delivered a preliminary report on the financial impact of TFW quarantine protocols to Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau in early May. It said maintaining the funding for the entire 2021 season is critical.

On average, farmers are paying $1,747 per worker quarantined in on-farm housing for 14 days. That amount already exceeds the $1,500 in program funds. The costs climb if alternative housing options, such as temporary trailers and bunkies, are brought in to accommodate more workers on the farm.

Those who used hotels to meet the Ontario TFW quarantine protocols paid $3,125 per worker for 14 days. That includes wages, meals, rooms, utilities and costs related to testing. 

If the quarantine extends past 14 days, which can occur due to testing, delays or contact tracing, the cost climbs by $113 per worker per day on-farm or $223 per worker per day at a hotel.

George said the OFVGA report presented a case to increase, not cease, assistance through a two-tiered system where operators with on-farm quarantine would be eligible for up to $1,700 and hotel quarantine costs up to $3,000 would be reimbursed. 

Additionally, it suggested a supplement of $220 per worker per additional day of quarantine and a one-time payment of $150 per worker for costs associated with the Day 10 COVID test. 

George said some growers have already borrowed against property, used personal lines of credit, dipped into savings and put expansions on hold to support the workers. Without funding programs, growers face increased debt.

“We’re producing food for Ontarians and we have to be financially sustainable doing that, whether it’s during pandemic years or a normal growing season,” he said.

Keith Currie, first vice-president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, said the cost of locally grown food may rise as a result.

“This is a food security issue,” he said. “We just need the government to work with us, and work with all relative groups, to make this continue to happen.”

Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia, the top horticulture areas in Canada, are dealing with COVID-19 variants and that adds to the logistical nightmares of getting TFWs safely into the country, through quarantine and into the field.

“If this isn’t resolved, those costs are still there,” Currie said. “Those are huge costs the government is not paying attention to even though lots of organizations have brought those facts to the government.”

TFWs are integral to ensure the food supply chain runs smoothly to provide Canadians with a safe, affordable and ample supply of food, he said, and agriculture plays a significant role in the national economy. 

“We’ve shown in the last year we’ll do whatever it takes to make sure that we keep people safe. Not just foreign workers, but domestic workers too,” Currie said. “We’re doing everything right, we’re following all the protocols. It’s just (that) our farmers can’t afford to do it on their own dime.”

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Federal Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough announced Nov. 27 the national commodity list (NCL) would be expanded to include seed corn, oil seed, grains and maple syrup — a move which allows farmers who produce those products to seek employees via SAWP.

The NCL helps determine eligibility and pay within the primary agricultural stream of the federal Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program. Access to SAWP and the TFW agricultural stream is limited to employers hiring workers for commodities specifically listed on the NCL.

SAWP is the stream most commonly used in Canadian primary agriculture; it provided 46,707 approved positions in 2019, with 12,858 coming from participating Caribbean countries and the rest from Mexico, the government said.

The NCL — which applies to both seasonal and non-seasonal work — already includes apiary products, fruits and vegetables, mushrooms, flowers; nursery-grown trees, greenhouse and nursery plants, pedigreed canola seed, sod, tobacco, beef and dairy cattle, swine, sheep, poultry and ducks, horses and mink among its other primary ag commodities.

SAWP employees and other TFWs were allowed to enter Canada in 2020 as essential workers under new federal limits on entry to Canada at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The government reiterated in its announcement Nov. 27 that COVID outbreaks, which led to illnesses and several deaths among Canada’s TFW labour force during 2020, have since prompted moves to update the minimum requirements for employer-provided TFW accommodations.

Consultations on those proposals began in late October and run until Dec. 22.

The Canadian Seed Trade Association, for one, hailed Qualtrough’s expansions to the NCL, saying the inclusion of seed corn on the list gives companies in that sector “access to labour that is urgently needed.”

Seed corn companies “traditionally rely on local high school students to fulfil their temporary labour demands in the summer and have had difficulty accessing the number of workers needed, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the CSTA said Nov. 30 in a separate release.

The CSTA said it expects access to labour will “remain a large challenge looking ahead to 2021.”

Given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the government said employers and workers who use the TFW program or SAWP are “encouraged to apply early to avoid any delays.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau announced Monday that the Mandatory Isolation Support for Temporary Foreign Workers Program will now run to Nov. 30, as the government extends its COVID-19 pandemic-related orders under the federal Quarantine Act to the same date.

The program provides up to $1,500 per TFW to employers who are required to isolate workers under the Act, to help cover wages, food, benefits, transportation, housing or other compliance requirements.

The $50 million program, first set up in April, provides lump-sum payments to employers of TFWs — including those working in the farming, fish harvesting and food production and processing sectors, which combined account for more than 60 per cent of workers entering Canada under the TFW program.

Funding is conditional on employers not being found in violation of the mandatory 14-day isolation protocols or “any other public health order.”

The relevant emergency order under the Quarantine Act was imposed in late March, requiring anyone still able to enter Canada by land, air or sea to self-isolate for 14 days, regardless of whether they show symptoms of COVID-19.

The now-extended self-isolation order applies to incoming TFWs and anyone else who’s still allowed to enter Canada following the March 21 ban on all non-essential entry, and exempts only certain workers such as truckers, medical personnel and firefighters.

Of TFWs on Canadian farms, 40 per cent are located in Ontario, 32 per cent in Quebec, 18 per cent in British Columbia and 2.6 per cent in Nova Scotia.

‘Adaptations’

With response to unforeseen events such as the COVID-19 pandemic in mind, Bibeau on Monday separately announced $387,000 in AgriRisk Initiatives funding for three projects, for producers in the horticulture sector to improve risk management.

The bulk of that will go to the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers (OGVG), with $225,000 allocated to develop a “risk management financial product for disease and insect infestations for greenhouses” through data modeling, frequency events and consultation with insurers.

The Canadian Horticultural Council, meanwhile, will get $123,269 to research and run a risk assessment of the Ontario horticulture sector, toward “future development of a whole-farm producer-paid top-up insurance product” via creation of a “diversity index.”

The Association des producteurs maraichers du Québec (APMQ) gets $38,660 toward development of a tool “for growers to assess their vulnerability and take the necessary actions to increase their resilience to climate change.”

That project is now complete, APMQ executive director Jocelyn St-Denis said in a government release Monday. “The extreme temperatures and drought of this past growing season have demonstrated the relevance of implementing adaptations specific to the reality of each business.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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As part of the review, surprise inspections of working and living conditions on farms will immediately increase, Ashley Michnowski, communications director for Canada’s employment minister, said. Other changes are being developed, she said.

At least 17 Ontario farms have seen outbreaks. Two Mexican workers died after contracting the virus.

Migrant workers cited a litany of concerns, including cramped, decrepit housing and being forced to work while awaiting COVID-19 test results, according to a report this month by Migrant Workers Alliance for Change.

Canada’s review of the program was first reported in the Globe and Mail newspaper.

Mexico’s labour ministry said Tuesday it will stop sending temporary workers to Canadian farms with outbreaks that do not have proper worker protections.

Canadian farmers rely on 60,000 temporary foreign workers, mainly from Latin America and the Caribbean, to plant and harvest crops.

“The piece that’s missing is enforcement,” said Santiago Escobar, national representative of Agriculture Workers Alliance, an association that represents non-unionized migrant workers.

Another factor contributing to the outbreaks may be a patchwork of housing standards. In Ontario, they vary by municipality, while other provinces set standards themselves, said Beth Connery, a Manitoba vegetable farmer and chair of the Canadian Horticultural Council’s labour committee.

Some foreign workers do not report sickness because they may not get paid during self-isolation or because they don’t understand the health care they are entitled to, said Dr. Wajid Ahmed, medical officer of health for Ontario’s Windsor-Essex County health unit.

Others do not follow physical distancing because of crowded accommodations or when they meet workers from other farms, he said.

— Rod Nickel is a Reuters correspondent covering the agriculture and mining sectors from Winnipeg.

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The federal government said Tuesday it will, effective “immediately,” temporarily waive its rule requiring a TFW to receive federal approval for a new work permit before he or she starts at a different new job.

Up against “new challenges in a rapidly changing job market” due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many TFWs with employer-specific work permits lost their jobs this spring, the government said in a release.

Of those, some have already left Canada; others can’t yet leave due to international travel restrictions or unavailability of flights. But under the normal process for a TFW to switch to another eligible job, he or she must first apply for a new work permit, then wait for that permit to be approved and issued before he or she can begin work.

The new temporary policy allows a TFW who is already in Canada and has secured a new job offer — “typically backed by a labour market test” — to get approval to start working in the new job, even while the work permit application is being fully processed.

The temporary policy will shorten a process that “can often take 10 weeks or more, down to 10 days or less,” the government said.

The decision comes as “many employers in sectors that have ongoing labour needs and who provide critical goods and services to Canadians, such as agriculture, agri-food and health care, find themselves with urgent needs for additional employees,” the government said.

“Today’s announcement builds on all the work we have been doing since the moment COVID struck to ensure our agriculture sector, particularly our horticultural producers, can count on their workforce and that they can ensure their safety,” federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said Tuesday in a separate statement.

To be eligible for the shortened process, a TFW must be in Canada with valid status and an employer-specific work permit — or must have been working under a work permit exemption — and must have submitted an application for a new work permit with a valid job offer, under either the TFW program or the International Mobility Program.

The work permit applicant must then submit a request to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). The request will be reviewed “within 10 days,” the government said, and if approved, authorization for the worker to start at the new job will go to the applicant via email.

An employer eligible for the new process still must have or get a valid positive labour market impact assessment (LMIA) from Employment and Social Development Canada, name the worker in a position on the LMIA, and notify Service Canada.

In an “employer-specific, LMIA-exempt” situation, an employer must submit an offer of employment through the International Mobility Program employer portal.

“While there will always be jobs for Canadians who choose to work in these sectors, these changes help support our economy by ensuring that temporary foreign workers already here can contribute during these extraordinary times,” federal Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough said in the government’s release. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The provincial government on Tuesday updated a mandatory order under its pandemic state of emergency to restrict TFWs from entering the province. The new restriction doesn’t affect the status of TFWs already in New Brunswick, the province said.

With “so many serious outbreaks” of COVID-19 in surrounding jurisdictions, the province’s borders must stay closed for now, Premier Blaine Higgs said in a release.

As of Thursday evening, New Brunswick’s total COVID-19 caseload remains the second-lowest among the 10 provinces, with 118 cases and zero deaths to date. Of those 118, 114 are deemed to have recovered and four cases are active, with none hospitalized.

“Under normal circumstances, we welcome foreign temporary workers as they play an important role in New Brunswick’s continued economic growth,” Higgs said. “But right now, the risk of allowing more people to enter the province is simply too great.”

In a separate release Thursday, the province said it plans to launch a “virtual job-matching platform” on Monday (May 4) to connect New Brunswick residents with “positions that, in the past, have been filled by temporary foreign workers.”

It’s expected there will be up to 600 such jobs in sectors such as agriculture and aquaculture, the province said.

However, in a joint statement Tuesday, the National Farmers Union in New Brunswick, the Agricultural Alliance of New Brunswick and farmer co-operative Really Local Harvest said they “strongly disagree” with the province’s decision.

The groups said they want to see measures taken “to hold our promises to the workers that have been assured employment as well as the farms that are awaiting the arrival of employees on which they depend.”

“This is cutting the means by which we have to produce,” Strawberry Hill Farm co-owner Tim Livingstone said in the groups’ release. The province “want(s) us to increase vegetable production but want(s) us to hire people who may leave at the drop of a hat or before our season has finished.”

Strawberry Hill, for one, has invested in training TFWs for over four years and relies on those workers’ “expertise to supervise (the farm’s) local employees,” the groups said.

TFWs “cannot simply be replaced with another worker from another sector,” the groups said, and “our integrity as employers and as a province that has signed contracts with people to ensure our food production and supply, are at stake as we consider breaking these agreements.”

If TFWs who haven’t yet arrived aren’t allowed to enter the province, “we, collectively, still owe them, and the families they support.”

The federal and provincial governments “have moved mountains in the last months to ensure these workers are still able to come to Canada and that precautions are taken to ensure the safety of all,” the groups added.

Specifically, farm groups and several provinces’ officials in March pressed for, and received, a federal exemption allowing TFWs to enter Canada, in the wake of Ottawa’s pandemic-related prohibition on foreign nationals entering the country.

Ottawa later also pledged financial support to TFWs’ employers to allow arriving employees to self-isolate for 14 days before starting work.

Under the province’s new ban, “it would be difficult if not impossible for farms to hire TFWs or any other workers mid-season,” the New Brunswick groups said.

“Even if employees from other sectors or students are put in their place, when the other jobs re-open and school starts, no one will be there to bring in the harvest.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The true impact of COVID-19 won’t be known for some time, especially because there is no clear indication as to how long the pandemic, and the mitigating measures put in place to prevent its spread, will last.

Just before social distancing and working-from-home isolations became the norm, the Canadian Horticulture Council held its annual general meeting in Ottawa in mid March.

The potential impact COVID-19 would have on imported labour within the horticulture industry was a hot topic, with its president Brian Gilroy telling me there was significant discussion about, “Whether we should be trying to move up our travel dates, so that if things do get worse the workers are here, so there’s a fairly high level of anxiety about that.”

At the time, we weren’t accustomed to tuning into daily updates on the emerging situation or cautioning people to stay away from one another.

Heck, I went to play what would become my last game of hockey the same day I spoke to Gilroy, who had listed concerns over trade and business risk management programs before making mention of anything related to COVID-19.

It’s clear the anxiety the industry felt was justified, as less than a week later Canada had become a very different place. International travel and border restrictions were soon put in place.

Perhaps at the time this decision was made, the decision makers around the federal cabinet table did not consider the impact this would have on farmers.

Almost immediately concerns of labour shortages and crop inputs were raised by producers. Fertilizer Canada and other groups assured confidence in access to inputs, but questions over accessing labour lingered.

By March 18, the federal government assured the flow of goods would continue and Public Safety Minister Bill Blair assured Canadians “…temporary foreign workers — their work is important to maintaining our country and what they contribute — so they will be allowed to enter Canada as well, after observing a 14-day period of self-isolation.”

For producers, this was significant because it indicated foreign workers would be permitted to come and help Canadian farmers through one of the available streams.

The Temporary Foreign Worker Program allows workers to stay in Canada for up to two years and often employs people in the livestock sector, while the Seasonal Agriculture Workers Program (SAWP) assists the horticulture industry by allowing employees from Caribbean countries and Mexico to help farm for up to eight months of the year.

About 60,000 people travel from these countries to Canada each year, and about 75 per cent of seasonal labour coming into the country is to aid in fruit and vegetable production — with many of them arriving in late March.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau’s office soon confirmed the SAWP was included in Blair’s blanket statement about temporary foreign workers.

But confusion continued, as some producers were told Blair’s comments only pertained to workers from the United States and excluded those from other countries, including the source countries for the SAWP.

Other questions remained as well, such as if only those with pre-existing contracts would be able to enter Canada, where the 14-day quarantine would take place and how potential travel of foreign workers to farms here would be managed.

Personally, I bounced between federal ministers’ offices attempting to get clarification or more information. I was either sent to another office or told to continue waiting for more details.

Groups who manage the workers’ logistics contradicted information we had from the office of the minister.

It became increasingly clear how moment-to-moment these decisions involving billions of dollars, several countries and government ministers were.

It’s now clear that the workers will be allowed into Canada, but there are still details being worked out.

How the country, and the outlook for Canadian farmers, looks when this is published could be entirely different, but that’s how it goes when situations change so fast.

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Helen Espinola left behind her husband and two children in the Philippines to work on a hog barn on the norther border of Huron County.

She’s a farrowing room technician who says she loves working with animals and has made it her career.

She is one of a growing number of employees working on Ontario livestock farms under the Temporary Foreign Worker program, as the ability of those local farmers to find suitable employees to work on their farms is challenging.

Why it matters: Labour shortages in agriculture are becoming acute. The Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program provides some options for farmers to alleviate challenges finding employees.

Espinola, like many of the others in the TFW program, has years of experience in hog farming in the Philippines. That is highly attractive to Canadian farms looking to find any sort of experience with hog production in Canadian applicants.

Blair Cressman, president of Huntingfield Farms, the company that owns the 2500-sow farm between Mildmay and Gorrie says the Filipino workers have provided stability to the farm and to the sows in the barns.

“We’re very pleased with the level of knowledge of staff brought in and how quickly they have adapted to in-barn processes and tasks. We provide some basic training, but their knowledge level and expertise in animal husbandry is exceptional,” he said in an interview at the farm in the house where the temporary foreign workers, including Espinola, live.

Espinola worked on a similar-sized hog farm in the Philippines, with 2400 sows, but farrow to finish. The Huntingfield farm is farm to wean. There were 26 employees on the farm in the Philippines, but here eight employees work in the two barns on site. There’s much more automation here.

Espinola says she used to hand feed sows in the Philippines, whereas in Canada, the sows are fed by an automated system.

Espinola says it is difficult living away from her family, although they have done it before due to job opportunities in her home country. She has been in Canada for a couple of months.

“For me it was a big decision. I started making the decision because of my low salary in Philippines and so I decided to work here in Canada,” she said. Her husband also is a hog farm worker, but she says she is the more talkative person and wanted to take this step to support her family, while her husband is more reserved.

Filipinos learn English in school as their second language and so have an easier time adapting to both work and life in Canada, says Cressman. Some farmers with TFWs from other countries have changed the language spoken in their barn, as it has been easier for the farmer to learn a new language than a staff of foreign workers.

Espinola is eager to improve her English and speaks it in the barn with her Canadian co-workers. She says she has found some Canadians easier to understand than others.

In many ways Espinola’s story is not new in Canada. Migrants in the past left their families in Europe to establish a home base in Canada before being joined later by spouses and children. Some have left parents and siblings in their countries of origin.

“Many in the agriculture community, especially in Ontario, are not that far removed from being immigrants,” says Andrea DeGroot, managing director for the Ontario Pork Industry Council. “They are one or two generations away. We see in a lot of cases employers have empathy for people coming in with new culture or language.”

A major change for employers is the need to support their TFWs in the first half year after their arrival, including trips to town for supplies, banking and personal necessities.

Unlike immigrants to farming of the past, most who arrive to work on farms are now part of the relatively rigid structure of the Temporary Foreign Workers program. Workers in the TFW program have two-year work visas. That’s in contrast to the Seasonal Agricultural Worker program in which workers from outside of the country come to provide harvest labour.

After the two years, they can return home and then reapply for another two-year work visa. It’s at that point that they can also apply for permanent residency status, which can then start the process of reuniting with family in Canada, if that’s the desire, and eventually Canadian citizenship. Immigration is a goal for some of the workers, but others are motivated to work in Canada to send their better earnings back home to help family.

There are about 10 million Filipinos who work abroad. The money they send back is about 10 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product of the Philippines or $31 billion each year according to a recent National Geographic report.

The Philippines government has recognized both the economic value and the effect on its citizens of the export of its people around the world. It has created an agency that tracks and supports its citizens, but the employers of foreign workers have to pay its costs. That’s an extra expense, says Cressman, which is a challenge with workers from the Philippines.

Other Ontario hog farmers employ workers from Spanish-speaking countries like Guatemala and also workers from Ukraine, along with east Asian countries like the Philippines.

Patience is key

Farms who look to the TFW program are usually strapped for help and want their workers right away, but Cressman and DeGroot say that patience is needed.

The system is based on the efficiency of government processing, which varies greatly.

OPIC has an 18-page guide to the TFW program and hosts regular update meetings for the program that is constantly changing. When the organization first started creating resources on the TFW program a couple of years ago it held a meeting expecting 20 people and got 90.

A recently announced change, now at the consultation phase, will allow TFWs to change employers if they wish to, as long as it is within the same sector. So hog farm workers could move to other hog farms.

“Employers have spent time and money to get them here, but they might not have stability for a 24-month period,” said DeGroot. “If the temporary foreign worker comes here and the environment isn’t what they expect and something is not good for them, there is already a process for them to leave and move to another employer.”

DeGroot isn’t sure how many TFWs are working on Ontario hog farms, as the numbers she has are several years old, and the program’s use here has been growing quickly in the past two years.

Cressman also works with Synergy Systems, one of the largest swine production organizations in the province. It was a group of Synergy producers and partners who together purchased the Huntingfield Farm operation a couple of years ago. He says Synergy sees opportunity in helping other producers manage through the TFW process.

It starts with a Local Market Impact Assessment (LMIA). That’s the assurance given to the federal government that there’s no one in the local area who can fill the job.

For Cressman that meant advertising the position locally, with all of the benefits of the potential position a TFW could be given, including the requirement for a temporary foreign worker to be supplied a home, along with any potential salary increases over the two years of the work visa. That means that even if a TFW proves exceptional, the employer has to stick with the previous commitment on wages.

“In general they have streamlined the LMIA process but you have to be patient. It will take four to six months from when you start the process to when you will have staff on the ground,” says Cressman.

Once it is determined there’s no local candidate, a consultant is usually used in a foreign country to find workers. In this case, hiring people with years of experience working in a hog barn was an easy decision once they were found.

There are also requirements for auditing, which have been increasing.

“That’s one of the changes that came in in last revision to the program,” says Cressman. “It’s very fair and we have no concerns about it.”

Technology drives efficiency and lessens homesickness

Inexpensive technology makes connecting with someone around the world as easy as someone next door. Cressman interviewed Espinola via Skype and she can keep in touch with her family via Facebook Messenger whenever she wants. It’s not the same as being there, at all, but it’s a connection that wasn’t there for previous migrants around the world.

The employees have internet access in the house and they have a television and a laptop computer for their use.

For now, Cressman or another employee takes them on trips to Listowel, about 20 minutes away, or Mildmay about 10 minutes away, for groceries, banking and other necessities. Espinola is already working on attaining her driver’s licence and Cressman says he is looking into English classes, likely in Listowel. Polishing her English is a priority.

Her long-term goal is to bring her family with her to Canada.

“We recognize that Helen is very open and desires to make a long-term opportunity here for her and her family. When we see that from a staff member and they are engaged at that level, we do what we can to support them through the process,” says Cressman. “I am making friends and colleagues and we as a business are excited to support families who will be future Canadian citizens. That’s really neat.”

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Farmers in Canada have long reported challenges in recruiting farm workers because the rural-based work traditionally involves a high degree of manual labour, long hours, and is often seasonal.

In 2017, Canada’s agriculture sector was short 16,500 workers, a labour crunch that cost farmers $2.9 billion in lost revenues, the council said in a new report on Canada’s agricultural workforce prepared with the Conference Board of Canada.

“In the coming years, the gap between the sector’s labor requirements and the available pool of domestic labour is expected to widen considerably, a trend that would place more agricultural businesses at risk and seriously impede the sector’s growth potential,” the report said.

The agriculture industry’s struggle to find domestic workers means farmers are heavily reliant on temporary foreign labour, brought to Canada though various streams of the Temporary Foreign Worker program. Foreign labour now accounts for 17 per cent of the sector’s employees.

On Tuesday, the council said the agriculture sector’s job-vacancy rate is “the highest of any major sector in the Canadian economy.” About two million Canadians are employed by Canada’s agriculture and agri-food sector, accounting for one in eight jobs or 12 per cent of total Canadian employment.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government challenged Canada’s agriculture industry to increase its exports to $75 billion by 2025. Canada is currently the world’s fifth largest exporter of agricultural goods.

— Reporting for Reuters by Kelsey Johnson in Ottawa.

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