JULY 2014
CELEBRATING 134 YEARS AS CANADA’S PREMIER HORTICULTURAL PUBLICATION
VOLUME 64 NUMBER 07
LABOUR
Help! How to strengthen relationships with seasonal workers
This Jamaican crew takes a breather from picking cherries on a 33°C July day. Murray Por teous, in red, says that Ontario’s increase in minimum wage to $11 per hour has forced him to trim his labour force from 57 to 43 workers this year. Maintaining good working relationships is key to productivity. Photo by Glenn Lowson.
INSIDE Canada’s Fruit & Veg Tech X-Change sold Page 2 Tabletop lettuce excites retailers Page 6
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KAREN DAVIDSON WATERFORD, Ontario -Delroy didn’t leave on a jet plane this year to work on an Ontario fruit farm. The Jamaican veteran of the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) was digitally fingerprinted and then matched to his home country’s citizenship files. The system discovered a glitch in his records: a minor police charge in his late teens. After 14 years of blemish-free service in Canada, he was no longer eligible to come. Biometrics, now used by the Canadian government to screen visitors from 30 countries, is having its intended – and unintended -- consequences. Officially launched in 2013, the program is keeping those with criminal records out of the country. But it’s also tripping up dozens of Delroys with minor infractions who have sought-after, Canadian
farm experience. “Quite a few people were found through screening,” says Murray Porteous, chair of the Human Resources Committee, Canadian Horticultural Council. “I lost Delroy – not his real name – one of my best workers. While that’s good for national security, it’s been horrendous for farmers getting the paperwork processed.” The more intense level of scrutiny means that farmers must file requests for workers 14 weeks in advance, often before they can estimate crop yields and precise needs for harvest labour. That’s an extra two weeks compared to usual practice. For example, Charles Keddy, a strawberry grower in Kentville, Nova Scotia, must first advertise for local workers in December. If no one applies or is suitable for the work, he then receives a labour market opinion that allows him to search for foreign workers to arrive by the first of April. “I totally agree with a
Canadian-first employment program, but after 40 years, we know that locals won’t wait around for another three months to start trimming strawberry plants at minimum wage,” says Keddy. “I believe that the process for hiring temporary foreign workers is going to become more difficult.” In Quebec, this season’s hurdles have been particularly onerous with up to 200 workers delayed from Guatamala. The long waits have been worsened by an extra layer of bureaucracy between the federal and provincial governments. “It’s similar to the Jamaica issue but multiplied by 10,” says Denis Hamel, executive director of FERME, the Fondation des Enterprises en Recrutement de Main-Oevre agricole etrangere. Stocky Guatamalan workers are well suited for hand-picking in the strawberry and lettuce industries. But the requirements for seven extra documents has
stymied many Guatamalans from filing on-line applications. FERME has hired extra clerical staff of its own to help process applications but now there’s a domino effect in Guatamala. The embassy there is overwhelmed with hundreds of applications, stamped ‘urgent.’ The lack of workers has already affected Quebec’s asparagus industry which reports unpicked produce. Now the pressure is critical for picking field strawberries. It’s an untimely dilemma for an organization that’s celebrating its 25th anniversary. Despite years of expertise, the crisis underscores how the landscape for labour continues to change. Indeed, media attention on foreign workers, especially in the restaurant industry, has brought a level of political scrutiny that extends to federal minister of employment and social development, Jason Kenney. CONTINUED ON PAGE 3