What a Fairer Migrant Farm Worker Program Could Look Like

In this excerpt from The Tyee, Senator Omidvar discusses the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology‘s study on the temporary foreign worker program:

A Canadian Senate committee is currently conducting its own study on that program. Sen. Ratna Omidvar said another drawback of closed permits is that workers cannot look for other jobs when a job falls through.

In British Columbia, for example, many migrant farm workers recently lost weeks of salary or went home early because of unseasonably high heat and devastating wildfires.

“What do these temporary migrant workers do when they’re in a strange place, in a rural outpost, and they have no work?” Omidvar said.

Weiler said she believes the best solution is also the simplest: letting workers switch jobs.

There are various ways to do this. Some migrant advocacy groups have called for permanent residency status for every temporary foreign worker, a proposal they call “status for all.”

Others believe it may be more palatable to offer workers an open permit within a specific industry, like agriculture.

Glen Lucas, president of the BC Fruit Growers’ Association, said such a proposal is interesting but might face pushback. Some farmers, he said, pay to fly workers from their home countries to Canada and would resent losing that money in the event a worker resigns.

Omidvar added that if the federal government is issuing broader permits, it also needs to monitor their effects on different sectors carefully.

Read the full article in The Tyee