‘One of the most important parts of agriculture’: N.S. industries worry about cuts to temporary foreign worker program

Many Maritime businesses say they need temporary foreign workers.

Farm manager Jordan Eyamie brought a group of eight temporary foreign workers to Halifax Stanfield International Airport Friday as they head back home to Mexico.

“We’ve been really happy to have them,” Eyamie said.

They came to Webster Farms in Cambridge at the beginning of the season to help with the planting and harvesting of early crops like rhubarb and strawberries. Twenty-four others are staying until the middle of September.

“One of the most important parts of agriculture are the temporary foreign workers. If we didn’t have these guys here, we would not have anything harvested,” says Eyamie who is also the president of Horticulture Nova Scotia.

According to the Government of Nova Scotia website, agriculture has the most foreign workers in the province. Followed by the food and beverage industry, fruit and tree nut farming and then seafood processing.

The majority come from Jamaica, Mexico and Guatemala.

“They’re filling roles where we need housekeepers, we need food prep people on a seasonal basis in Nova Scotia to help with tourism,” says the president and CEO of the Halifax Chamber of Commerce, Patrick Sullivan.

But not everyone is singing the program’s praises. Speaking at an event in Mississauga earlier this week, federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre would like to see the program scrapped.

“In most cases, I don’t think they do need temporary foreign workers. I think they hire them because they can pay them less,” Poilievre said.

Poilievre’s plan also allows for a transition period of five years in what he call regions with ultra-low-unemployment.

“Halifax’s unemployment is quite low at 5.5 per cent, the rest of Nova Scotia is about 7 per cent. These are historically low numbers, without those temporary foreign workers in some of those categories we simply wouldn’t have the people to fill those jobs, particularly on a seasonal basis,” responds Sullivan.

Poilievre would like to see the government then create special programs for industries that traditionally have trouble finding employees.

Eyamie says that’s redundant, pointing out that there are already similar programs in place for the agriculture industry.

“Those are already well established, and of course, with every program there are things that you need to work through, but we already have those relationships established, and to create a whole entirely new program would be nonsensical.”

The seasonal agricultural worker program began back in 1966, with the temporary foreign worker programs coming along seven years later.

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