Secure Agricultural Products, Then Comes BathroomTissue ... an Issue of Priorities

"We are working with our health department federally, and with the provinces on the rules ... but I can tell you that it will be the responsibility of the employers to make sure that they comply."

"Otherwise, they could lose their privilege to have new foreign temporary workers in the coming year. So, this is definitely something that they won't play with."

Agriculture Minister Marie Claude Bibeau

"There are so many cogs in this wheel. But the protocol being developed is very detailed. There will be no stone left unturned."

"No one wants a virus to infect their workforce and shut down their farm. Everyone is highly incentivized to do this right."

I expect to have something substantive soon. Every day we don't bring in workers is a lost day of production and that's an issue."

Mary Robinson, president, Canadian Federation of Agriculture

"There were supposed to be four people coming today. We've already seeded two greenhouses. If we don't get workers this week we won't seed a third."

"This is a $5-billion industry. If we don't get this sorted out now there could be major damage."

Ken Forth, broccoli farmer, chair, labour section, Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers' Association

Pfenning's Organic Farms in New Hamburg, Ontario, employs Canadians and Jamaican migrant farm workers to work its fields and packing warehouse. The owners would like to see its Jamaican workers afforded better pathways to becoming permanent residents and have open work permits that give workers the ability to easily change employers. Jim Rankin/Toronto Star

Major damage? As in, non-availability of vitally important, basic foodstuffs? A nation that is not self-sufficient in food, is one that has no interest in protecting and conserving the most vital aspect of daily life; the capacity to feed itself. The old agricultural version of a nation's food stability was one of small farms, of farming communities, of a dedication to the land and its resources, when a large proportion of a population was directly involved in basic food production.

All that has changed, with the introduction of large-scale farming. Where a farming family once was able to perform all the necessary work, hiring on a few extra locals to help during harvest, depending on neighbouring farms to lend a hand in a general atmosphere of farming neighbourliness, these new, massive farms are hugely dependent on the temporary importation of farm workers from third-world countries.

Canadians, like all 'developed', wealthy countries of the world, fail to view hard farm labour as an attractive profession. Fewer people are prepared to commit to the back-breaking work and long hours that farming require. Ironically, when fears of goods shortages on the consumer market ensued as a result of the spread worldwide of the novel coronavirus that emerged in the 'wet' markets of Wuhan, China where live wild animals are sold for human consumption, and the zoonotic we now know as COVID-19 spread across the globe, it was of all consumer products, bathroom tissue that people panicked over.

Temporary foreign workers, such as these Filipino workers at the Tignish Fisheries processing plant in P.E.I, and seasonal agricultural workers, many from Mexico, Guatemala, and the Caribbean, are critical to Canada's food production. The coronavirus and travel restrictions into Canada meant the tens of thousands of such workers might not be able to come. The government now says those with valid work visas will be allowed in. (CBC)

What good is toilet paper in the absence of food? Real food. Agricultural products, not the processed and pre-prepared quasi-food that most people mistakenly regard as nutritious quality food. But whether it's whole food, unprocessed, and freshly grown fruits and vegetables, all self-respecting and cautious nations of the world should be prepared to do anything to preserve their food supply. In the absence of Canadians themselves willing to perform hard farm labour, Canada looks to temporary workers from abroad.

Producers of lettuce, asparagus, and all manner of fruits and vegetables are now faced with the prospect of quarantining thousands of seasonal workers brought to Canada to work on farms at the very time that the country is in general lockdown, guarding against novel coronavirus transmission. Yet, to safeguard domestic food production, the industry is in dire need of workers from abroad, themselves anxious to come to Canada to earn money they can send back to their impoverished communities.

Protocols to mark out how farmers can safely transport workers from airports, then conduct mandatory 14-day quarantines are under way, along with discussions with foreign governments that have taken their own precautionary steps against COVID-19 by shutting their borders hoping to delay the rate of viral infections are in the works. Some of the details to be guaranteed are the supply to foreign temporary workers of safety equipment and protective wear against the virus. 

The Caribbean, Guatemala and Mexico supply about 60,000 workers, to enter Canada annually to seed and harvest crops. Some 4,000 workers have already arrived, with thousands more expected to arrive weekly until the fall harvest. But when the federal government barred all international visitors to Canada last week with some exceptions, the situation looked dire to farmers until the government relented, allowing seasonal and temporary foreign workers entry.

The issue is complicated by the fact that other governments have imposed their own travel restrictions, making the entry of seasonal employees all that more complex. Guatemala for example has halted all flights in and out of the country as a measure to slow down the transmission of COVID-19. Thousands of acres of broccoli, lettuce, asparagus and other vegetables must be seeded and harvested and without the presence of foreign workers that need will be seriously impeded.

"These are details we are still working on and, hopefully, we will have the proper protocols in place shortly."

"The most important thing is to stop the spread of this virus and take all the necessary steps. That is the only way we are going to get out of this."

Matthias Oppenlaender, chair. Grape Growers of Ontario