Harvest labour from temporary foreign workers is particularly important to vegetable producers and other horticultural operators, who say they can’t find enough help locally.

Manitoba’s growing trend of migrant agricultural workers

It’s not just Ontario. Manitoba farms also draw temporary foreign workers

At Connery Riverdale Farms near Portage la Prairie, the fields and staff accommodations sit empty. They’re awaiting both the 2017 growing season and about 60 temporary foreign workers who will largely handle the hand-picked harvest necessary for much vegetable production. Beth Connery is one of several Manitoba producers to draw from the Seasonal Agricultural Worker


Workers bone and cut beef at a meat packing plant in Toronto, May 22, 2003. Work continues at the plant despite several countries placing a temporary ban on Canadian beef after a case of Mad Cow disease was discovered on an Alberta farm.

Four-year rule for TFWs tossed out

Government is also committing to develop pathways to permanent residency for eligible applicants among TFWs

Federal officials recently announced that temporary foreign workers (TFWs) will no longer be required to leave Canada after four years’ employment. The government will also begin paving the way for more to remain in Canada permanently. The ‘cumulative duration’ or ‘four-in, four-out rule,’ was a requirement that these workers could only work here four years

Just paying Canadians more to work in the farm sector or further automating farms "may not be possible," the Conference Board of Canada writes.

Canadian farms need foreign workers

The Conference Board of Canada says the industry is facing a growing labour crunch

Canadian agriculture faces a serious roadblock to future expansion through a growing shortage of workers with the right skills, says a report from the Conference Board of Canada. The report, entitled Sowing the Seeds of Growth, says the agriculture sector is “on a seemingly unsustainable path, with an ever-growing labour gap that is likely to

As older workers are set to retire, few replacements are to be found. One factor contributing to that is the lack of growth in rural population in Canada.

Agricultural labour shortage will worsen, new report says

Cash receipt losses to Canadian farmers from job vacancies pegged at $1.5 billion, 
or three per cent of the industry’s total value in sales and production

Canadian agriculture’s already acute labour shortage will worsen over the next decade, as high numbers of employees retire and the domestic labour pool continues to dry up. The Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council released labour market information (LMI) research last week, showing a gap of 59,000 employees between primary agriculture’s need for workers and those


Foreign worker hiring headache?

Farm labour shortages continue to be a problem across Canada and especially 
on the Prairies where oil dollars lure workers away from farms

Bill Martin’s phone has been ringing off the hook. The vice-president of Saskatoon-based Farmers of North America got 30 calls in the first two days after his organization launched a new initiative last month to streamline the process of getting temporary foreign workers. “Members started calling in immediately after receiving notifications,” said Martin. “The feeling


Separate path for farm labour in U.S. Senate immigration plan

Reuters / Agricultural labourers would be on a separate path to U.S. citizenship than other undocumented workers in the immigration reforms proposed by eight senators Jan. 28 that cited the importance of feeding America. Many of the 1.5 million farm workers employed in the United States annually — perhaps 500,000 to 900,000 in all —



The ins and outs of hiring foreign workers

As farm work has become increasingly complex and skil-led, farmers, non-farming landowners and employment agencies are searching the world for the right employees. At the other end of the scale, some employers, including horticulture operations, are turning the movement of low-wage jobs out of Canada on its head and are bringing foreign workers to this