Solutions to labour shortages may lie offshore

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

With the daily news full of stories of plant closures, job losses and unemployment figures, will Canadians again start considering agricultural jobs?

Apparently not. Pork producers have increasingly been looking internationally to find reliable employees as it seems Canadians do not want that work.

Last fall, Sue Selves, human resources project co-ordinator for the Ontario Pork Industry Council, organized information sessions to help producers who were thinking of hiring offshore labour. Although statistics on the number of foreign workers coming to Ontario pig farms are difficult to find, Selves says the idea to hold the sessions came from producers.

"I arranged these sessions in response to feedback and inquiries that I had received from producers who were having a very difficult time finding staff for their operations," she says. BP