Canada faces a persistent farm labour shortage despite hiring migrant workers, says a Department of Agriculture report. The findings follow a 2020 appeal by members of the Senate agriculture committee to have taxpayers pay bonuses to jobless Canadians to work in agriculture..“Recruitment of staff in general, regardless of skill level, is an important challenge producers had to face,” said the report 2022 Strategic Issues Survey With Producers. Researchers said labour shortages were most serious among poultry, vegetable and fruit producers, organic operators and farmers of all types with revenue over $1 million annually..“Around a third of producers, 35%, were facing labour market challenges in 2022,” said the report. “The pandemic along with the massive quitting of workers that ensued, ‘The Great Resignation,’ might have exacerbated labour market challenges for farm producers as well.”.“Recruiting staff was a problem for over eight out of ten producers who faced labour market challenges, 84%,” said Strategic Issues. “Recruiting issues pertained mainly to hiring high skilled (39%) or low skilled (50%) workers.”.According to Blacklock's Reporter, shortages were reported by 63% of producers in Atlantic Canada followed by 54% in British Columbia and Québec. “Producers from Alberta and the Prairies reported facing fewer challenges than the rest of the regions,” said the report..Findings were based on questionnaires with 1,447 farmers nationwide. The agriculture department paid Léger Marketing Inc. $99,471 for the study, the first of its kind to gauge the scope of farm labour shortages. “This is a new question,” it said..Federal regulators from the outbreak of the pandemic warned of shortages of farm labour. A total 22 senators in 2020 petitioned cabinet for “economic incentives” to get unemployed Canadians to work on the farm. “To put food on the table Canada needs to increase the hiring of its domestic workforce,” said then-Senator Diane Griffin (P.E.I.), former chair of the Senate agriculture committee..The committee in a 2019 report complained of chronic labour shortages even before the pandemic. “Witnesses explained many Canadians associate work in the agriculture and agri-food sector with low wages,” wrote senators. “Students should learn more about the nature of agricultural work.”.The Department of Immigration since 1966 has operated a Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program that permits farmers to import labour from Mexico and the Caribbean on eight-month contracts. “Even with this program on-farm agriculture has the highest job vacancy rate of any industry,” the Canadian Federation of Agriculture said in a statement..The Strategic Issues Survey said the typical Canadian producer earns less than $100,000 annually in agriculture, has off-farm income, and has been farming more than 25 years.
