FEBRUARY 2020 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


Banding together to attract domestic


workers New strategic plan aims to raise profile of horticulture careers


by PETER MITHAM DELTA – Greenhouse


vegetable producers are some of the most productive and technologically sophisticated growers in the province. They’re living illustrations of what densification means for agriculture, each square foot yielding far more than the same amount of field production, and all of it in a largely automated environment. But it still requires the human touch. The 85 acres Village Farms


International Inc. operates off Hwy 91 in Delta employs 70 to 100 full-time staff year- round, with 300 to 400 seasonal workers to tend, harvest and process its tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. With many of those


workers aging out of the roles they used to do, Village Farms human resources manager Dalell Amed says she’s had to look abroad for workers to handle many of the jobs domestic workers used to do. “We’re bringing foreign


workers to replace those workers, and the types of jobs that they’re doing are totally different than the types of jobs local labour can do,” she explains. “The local labour is not able to go up on the high carts through the greenhouse, for example.”


Not unique


The challenges Amed faces aren’t unique. The jobs might


be different, but other sectors of agriculture also face a significant shortfall in the kind and quantity of workers available to them. According to a survey the


Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council completed last year, the farm sector will require 123,000 domestic workers by 2029. However, up to 39,600 positions risk going unfilled. The situation in BC is just as dire. CAHRC expects the province to require 51,500 workers to maintain its farm workforce by 2029. But up to 15,200 jobs could go unfilled, with the horticulture sector being hardest hit. “The new generations are not coming to work for a minimum-wage job anymore,” says Amed, who notes that many are attracted by positions that seem to offer more appealing, lucrative career paths.


The cannabis industry is a case in point. “They’re hiring at a high


rate, and the workers are decreasing,” she says. The irony is that Village


Farms is a partner in Puresun Farms Corp., a joint venture with Emerald Health Therapeutics Inc., which operates 25 acres adjacent to Village Farms’ facility in Delta. Amed is in competition with Puresun for workers. “The perceptions that people have of the cannabis industry are that there’s a lot of money, there’s a lot of opportunities,” she says. “But


See LABOUR on next page o Ag council helps avert


seasonal worker delays Biometrics, bureaucracy key obstacles for returning workers by DAVID SCHMIDT ABBOTSFORD – Potential problems


bringing in seasonal farm workers have been averted. Western Agricultural Labour Initiative


(WALI) program manager Veronica Moreno warned growers at a BC Landscape & Nursery Association meeting in Abbotsford on December 17 that they could face delays receiving Mexican workers through the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) at the beginning of this year. That turned out not to be the case. “We worked with the affected employers and I think we were able to accommodate everyone,” BC Agriculture Council executive director Reg Ens said in early January. The issue hinged on the need for


Mexican workers to provide biometric information (fingerprints and a facial photo) before being permitted to work in Canada. The requirement was introduced last year but only half of last year’s workers provided the required information. That means many returning workers and all new workers will need to provide their biometrics. Unfortunately, this can only be done at one center in Mexico City and that center can handle no more than 150 applicants a day. “We are trying to get government to


allow us to get worker biometrics in Canada,” says Ens.


That still means a delay, Moreno says, noting it takes two weeks to issue work permits after workers provide their biometrics.


More bureaucratic


As SAWP becomes more popular, it is also becoming more bureaucratic. Employers have to complete evaluation forms for all workers each year. Companies in the business of bringing in SAWP workers must already be registered and it is likely that in future, employers will also need to be registered and may even require training. “We don’t know when that will happen,”


Moreno says, adding WALI is creating a trusted employer program to expedite the process. She reminded growers there are new


worker housing guidelines for 2020. Inspections are generally conducted by the Mexican consulate. Their reports are valid for eight months and must be posted in housing. Mexico will no longer do random inspections but the BC Ministry of Health may take that on. Moreno stressed that new permits are required for a change in residential use, such as going from a family home to a boarding house. To help both workers and employers,


WALI is releasing the HUB Connect mobile app in Abbotsford and Kelowna. Piloted in Leamington, Ontario, last year, the app provides a wealth of technical and local community information in both English and Spanish.


Once provided, biometric information is


good for 10 years. Workers from the Caribbean have been providing biometric data since 2013 without trouble.


7


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