Farmers opt for offshore workers

Monday, March 16, 2009

© AgMedia Inc.

by SUSAN MANN

The recession may make it easier for some farmers to find full-time workers but growers will still likely use the same number of offshore employees for their seasonal work this year as in other years.

Prof. Ken McEwan, of the University of Guelph’s Ridgetown Campus, expects the numbers of workers coming into Canada will likely stay the same as previous years despite the higher unemployment rates in this country.

About 18,000 workers come to Canada from Mexico and the Caribbean as part of the Seasonal Agricultural Worker program. Farmers can hire them for seasonal jobs in planting and harvesting when qualified Canadians or permanent residents aren’t available. Generally Canadians aren’t interested in seasonal planting and harvesting jobs.

Prof. Alfons Weersink of the University of Guelph says there’s anecdotal evidence to suggest farmers are getting more applicants for full-time positions this spring. Weersink knows of a southwestern Ontario dairy farmer who advertised all last summer for a full-time position but couldn’t get anyone. Then the local auto parts plant closed and just one week later he had five people looking to see if the job was filled.

“There is some available labour from people who might not have considered working on a farm before,” he says.

Leamington-area greenhouse tomato and cucumber grower, Anthony Cervini, says local people are mainly looking for full-time jobs to keep them going until employment in the auto sector returns. “They’re not really looking for employment on a long-term basis.”

Ken Forth, chair of the agricultural industry’s Labour Issues Coordinating Committee, also says the number of offshore workers will likely stay the same.

“We’re always losing some farmers because they just can’t afford to be in the business anymore,” Forth notes. “But what we’re finding is that for the few (farmers) that we lose we pick up a few or the existing farmers bring one or two more people in.”

Forth says farmers are bringing in one or two extra workers because the Canadians that did fill some of those positions are retiring. “We haven’t seen any major fluctuations in that program yet.”

Forth says the rising provincial minimum wage will have a greater impact on farm labour in Ontario this year than the recession. The wage is slated to increase to $9.50 an hour from $8.75 on March 31. Another 75-cent an hour increase is set for next year.

While the prevailing wage rate the federal department of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada sets for offshore workers is $8.76 an hour, farmers have to pay the highest of either minimum wage or the prevailing wage rate, Forth explains.

The wage hike may drive many farmers out of business, he says. Farmers will know by the end of this year if they can continue operating.

The hike comes at a time when prices in some commodities are way below production costs. Forth says on his farm last summer they sold broccoli for $3 a box less than the cost of production of $9 to $10 a box. BF