KOESLAG: The agriculture sector has very real immigration needs – Toronto Sun

Canadas immigration discussions continue to be centred on numbers. How many refugees? How many economic immigrants? How many family members?

At the same time the economic immigration policy has become increasingly focused on recruiting higher-skilled for jobs in urban centres.

But Canadas agriculture sector needs more people working in agriculture in rural Canada. So we need something different. We are looking for a made in Canada solution for our permanent labour shortage.

Why do we need this?

The agriculture supply chain is contributing $111 billion per year to the Canadian economy, over 6% of Canadas GDP. Thats more than $30 million per day, creating 2.3 million jobs. The mushroom sector contributes close to $1 billion a year to the economy with export increases of over $50 million last year alone.

Yet, there are 16,500 job vacancies on Canadian farms. This labour crisis is causing $2.9 billion lost sales to the economy. Mushroom farms have close to 20% job vacancy rate.

Many farms run ongoing ads and receive no applicants. Even though we pay competitive wages, offer stable work that provides a good quality of life in rural Canada. A wage survey conducted by the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council (CAHRC) shows entry level mushroom harvesters start at minimum wage and after training, experienced workers can make up to $29 per hour. Supervisors earn between $35,000 to $80,000 annually.

The most in-demand jobs are our entry level harvester positions picking mushrooms. For occupations like this, the most difficult to find people for, these are classified as lower-skilled. So even when there are no Canadian applicants, and we already have a trained workforce of Agricultural Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs), there are very few immigration options that allow them to stay.

Farmers and processors recruit for something not included in the Canadian immigration merit-based point system. We need people interested in working in agriculture, with experience, who want to participate in rural Canadian life. We can prove this actually supports a very high level of retention.

What we propose in our Give Rural Canada a Chance report, is a new immigration program where rural Canada and agriculture are prioritized. A program that supports job matching of immigrants to regions and sectors with high job vacancies. Where an immigrant coming to Canada has a job from day one in rural Canada, working in an important industry that grows our food, so we can all go to the grocery store and eat Canadian food every day.

In many ways the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) already allows for job matching, while providing a Canadian first approach that we support. However, we need a permanent made-in-Canada Agri-Food solution, not a temporary program.

We are happy a new Agri-Food Immigration Pilot was announced this summer. Criteria is being finalized. This is a step in the right direction, but we need to make sure it allows real immigration access to workers wanting to work on the farm.

We believe work in rural Canada has value. We believe hard work on the farm has value. We want to support the TFWs on our farms to a clear pathway to citizenship because we want our workers who are employed in year-round jobs to be allowed to stay. In our new video, we show how we support farm workers, including family reunification.

Weve done the research and we have the plan to make this happen. Were ready for action.

We call on the Government of Canada and all political parties to work with us on a made in Canada solution to support farm workers, farmers, and safe and affordable Canadian food on our grocery shelves.

Ryan Koeslag is the executive VP for Canadian Mushroom Growers Association. Learn more at facebook.com/MushroomsGrowers

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KOESLAG: The agriculture sector has very real immigration needs - Toronto Sun