As many Canadians are looking for more locally made products at places like the supermarket and liquor store, those growing and harvesting the fruits and vegetables that are sold there or go into those products are often not Canadian themselves.
Despite spending most of their time in Canada, migrant workers in the agricultural sector have limited or nonexistent pathways to becoming permanent residents or getting an open work permit. That also means they cannot vote.
“These are essential workers who come to do essential work here in Canada. They do work that Canadians do not want to do,” said Rev. Antonio Illas, who runs the Migrant Farmworkers Project (MFP) in the Niagara Region.
“If it weren’t for our agricultural workforce, our greenhouses, vegetables, flower industry, vineyards, these industries could not be successful,” he said in an interview translated from Spanish.
Illas said many workers spend decades doing “backbreaking labour” in Canada for months at a time.
“A worker who has come here for 25, 30 years and who, at the end of the day, when they want to enjoy their pension, wants to make this their country … how unfair it is, that they cannot do it?” he said.
“In my opinion, to improve the structure of this program, and based on social justice, this seasonal farmworker program must be modified.”
Illas said it falls on Canadian citizens to “watch over this vulnerable community and fight,” because they have no say when it comes to the ballot.
“It’s up to us,” he said.
Illas wants to know what pathways political parties are offering migrant workers toward permanent residency.
He said in his experience, most workers don’t want to stay in Canada, “but there is a percentage that would like to adjust their immigration status and [the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program] does not provide it.”
‘We must safeguard the dignity of this group’
Through the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP), Canadian employers can hire and fly in temporary foreign workers.
The program is open to workers from Mexico and several Caribbean countries (Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts-Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago).
SAWP started in 1966 with Jamaican workers and was expanded to the Caribbean until 1974, when Mexico was included.
“Maybe in 1966, when the program was made, it wasn’t an issue, but now, 58 years later, there are some [workers] who would like to migrate to Canada and make this their country,” he said.
The Migrant Farmworkers Project in Niagara aims to “bring together” workers with volunteers and community members in the region, said Illas.
They offer free meals, clothes, healthcare and a space for workers to access the internet and connect with others.
The project also locally runs a program called Plaza Comunitaria (Community Square in English), which helps Mexican adults finish their elementary and secondary education. Illas said they’re always looking for volunteers.
Illas said as it stands, the federal government sees migrant workers purely as a source of “cheap labour.”
“We must safeguard the dignity of this group, and that is why we want [migrant workers] not to be invisible in Canadian society,” he said.
Other advocacy groups have been calling for migrant workers to have an access to permanent residency for many years.
“Without permanent resident status, migrants are left vulnerable to abuse, exploitation, and in some cases, even death,” Karen Cocq, with the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, said at a news conference in B.C. last year.
What the parties are saying
CBC Hamilton reached out to the major political parties to ask about their plans for the program, how they will support agricultural and migrant workers and if they plan to make permanent residency more accessible for these workers.
The Conservative Party did not respond to CBC’s request.
Here’s some of what the others said.
Green Party
Fabrice Lachance Nové, press secretary for the Greens, said in a statement to CBC Hamilton the party would “comprehensively review and overhaul the Temporary Foreign Worker Program,” a program broader than SAWP which lets employers fill temporary jobs where there are no Canadian workers available.
The party would do that in order to “protect workers from abuse and exploitation while ensuring critical labour needs are met in agriculture.”
“This includes strengthening enforcement of labour protections, fair wages, adequate housing, and safe working conditions for foreign agricultural and other seasonal workers, and address barriers these seasonal workers face to access social safety net programs such as employment insurance and disability protections,” said the spokesperson.
The party would aim to reduce reliance on the program, expand “employer-driven immigration pathways,” and ensure migrant agricultural workers have “fair routes” to permanent residency.
They’ll also aim to “prevent labour trafficking and exploitation by mandating open work permits, increasing unannounced workplace inspections, and enforcing strict penalties for abusive employers.”
Liberal Party
The party did not respond directly about the program or support for workers in Canada under SAWP.
Mohammad Hussain, a spokesperson for the Liberals, said in a statement Liberal Leader Mark Carney is “taking action to build a strong economy and to put more money back in the pockets of Canadians.”
“By Canada Day we will remove interprovincial trade barriers that will make it easier for Canadian businesses to trade their goods across the country and bring down costs,” the spokesperson said.
The statement also said the party wants to set “responsible” immigration levels “with a focus on building a strong economy and ensuring that key sectors have the workforce they need.”
According to the party’s website, they’re also aiming to “make it easy” for Canadians to buy local products by working with “agricultural producers,” among others.
New Democratic Party
The NDP provided a statement via the Hamilton East—Stoney Creek MP candidate Nayla Mithani, who said “our immigration system should be accountable to Canadians and rooted in the values of fairness, dignity, and human rights.”
Mithani said the party will eliminate closed work permits, “an exploitative system that denies workers their rights.”
“We will implement a broad and inclusive regularization program that gives those without status a clear pathway to permanent residency,” she said.
“Canada’s strength comes from the people who have made it their home – from the First Nations who have stewarded the land for millennia to generation after generation of newcomers who have built their lives here.”
