Honourable colleagues, I rise today to highlight some ongoing labour issues in the agricultural industry.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a light on many important issues over these past few months, and this is absolutely one of them.

In my opinion, that’s a good thing, as it gives us the opportunity to reflect on problems and challenges that have come to light and work to improve them.

Labour has long been a source of difficulty for many farmers and for the agricultural industry as a whole, across all skill levels. We simply don’t have enough people interested in working in agriculture.

It’s unfortunate because, as I can tell you after 35 years in the sector myself, there are many wonderful opportunities that are not limited to farming. You can work in agriculture through science, technology, business, communications, human resources and many other areas — even politics.

One of the major solutions that Canadian agriculture has turned to in order to combat the labour shortage is temporary foreign workers.

For years, thousands of workers have been coming to Canada each year from Mexico, Jamaica and many other Caribbean countries to fill these gaps. These migrant workers help farmers with planting, pruning and harvesting, mainly in the fruit and vegetable sectors.

Farmers who employ these temporary workers generally have nothing but great things to say about their experiences. Many farmers have the same workers come back year after year, and build close, almost family relationships with them.

That said, I am sure that many of you have heard about a recent report that outlines certain instances of abuse and challenges, particularly within the context of COVID-19. Though these instances are very rare, they shouldn’t happen at all, and we need to think about ways we can address these issues and move forward.

What we truly need is a national labour strategy for agriculture. Such a strategy would allow us to determine short-, medium- and long-term solutions to transition the industry into the future.

A cohesive, nationwide strategy would ensure that expectations, regulations, safety requirements, training and other workplace programs would be fair and consistent across the board.

It should also provide mechanisms for complaints and interventions in cases where regulations are not adhered to.

As well, the agricultural industry needs to do a better job at promotion and career awareness.

People don’t always recognize the benefits of working in agriculture and don’t realize the wide array of possibilities that exist.

I certainly don’t have all the answers today, but this is an issue that I hope to continue working on with members of the agricultural industry and government, in order to make positive changes going forward. Thanks very much for listening.