Samuda eyes doubling farm worker numbers to Canada
Published:Friday | February 25, 2022 | 12:06 AMChristopher Serju/Senior Gleaner Writer
Liaison officers and other support personnel have been urged to target other agricultural subsectors beyond the harvesting of orchard and vineyard crops to open up uncharted labour opportunities for Jamaican farm workers.
The charge comes amid commendation from Canadian government authorities who have praised locals for buttressing the North American country’s food supply which depends heavily on seasonal migrant workers.
Tapping jobs in the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, which fall within the wheat belt, could double the average of 9,000 Jamaicans who make the trip to the country’s farms annually. The upshot of that development would offer the chance for mainly rural, labour-intensive workers to earn multiple times wages they collect domestically and soothe traditional agitation that too few new recruits enter the programme.
Minister of Labour and Social Security Karl Samuda said at a farewell ceremony on Thursday that he was aiming to “increase to a minimum of 100 per cent” the number of farm workers who enrol in the Canadian programme.
“There is nobody from Jamaica going to those farms, and I ask the question, ‘Why?’ What about the extent to which our liaison officers concentrate on that market? I know there is competition from other markets, but that competition cannot outdo the skills, commitment and hard-working nature of the Jamaican worker,” Samuda said at the Overseas Employment Centre at 110-114 East Street, Kingston, on Thursday to see off 95 seasonal farm workers who were scheduled to leave for Canada from the Norman Manley International Airport that day.
“I know the market is there. It is a question of how diligently we pursue through our liaison service the involvement of those workers.”
Jamaicans primarily engage in the planting and harvesting of crops such as apples, grapes, and strawberries.
INVALUABLE CONTRIBUTION
Meanwhile, Emina Tudakovic, high commissioner of Canada to Jamaica, has underscored the invaluable contribution of Jamaican farm workers to her nation’s economy and, particularly, to food security for more than six decades.
“From the 1960s, workers from countries like Jamaica have been integral to allowing us to pick our crops and to plant, because we can’t maintain it without them. During COVID when we essentially shut down the borders to Canada – and we have for almost two years – we kept the seasonal agriculture workers programme going because it’s really integral to our food supply in Canada,” Tudakovic said on Thursday.
“Not only is it for the food supply to feed Canadians but it’s also for the food we export as well,” she added.
Because of its seasonal nature and relatively unattractive wages, Canadians are often reluctant to take up farm work in sufficient numbers to sustain the agriculture industry. Jamaicans and other Caribbean workers have also filled labour gaps in other industries.
The drawing card for migrants is the favourable currency exchange rate for the Canada dollar against the Jamaican counterpart. As at Thursday, it took J$122.89 to purchase one Canadian dollar.
“It allows us to get the labour we need, but it allows Jamaica and the workers as well to get some money that they need, so it works out well,” Commissioner Tudakovic admitted, going on to explain that especially over the last decade, Canada has done a lot of work to improve worker safety.
The authorities, said Tudakovic, were particularly concerned about avenues for exploitation of migrant workers in a country whose culture and language with which they might not be conversant. Approximately 22 per cent of Canada’s population speaks French. Three-quarters of the country speak English.
“Jamaicans speak English, and so it easier, but you want to make sure that workers know, for example, that if the employer says if you don’t do X-Y-Z, I am going to send you back to Jamaica, that they can’t do that. You have a work permit, and if you want to change your employment you have to go to the government of Canada but we stress that if an employer takes away your passport, they are not allowed to do that. That’s illegal,” said the high commissioner.
She disclosed that Canada sought to put a high premium on workplace safety, including ensuring that employees who work with occupational hazards are properly trained.