(Alice McFarlane/farmnewsNOW Staff)

By Alice McFarlane

Agri-Food Immigration Pilot Project

Non-seasonal agricultural workers to help increase workforce in meat processing

Mar 25, 2019 | 5:15 PM

The Canadian Meat Council says it is pleased with the announcement of an Agri-Food Immigration Pilot Project.

The federal budget included a three-year program to bring in more full-time, non-seasonal agriculture workers.

Canadian Meat Council vice president Marie-France MacKinnon said the pilot will help address a critical need for workers at Canadian meat processing plants.

“We have a huge shortage,” MacKinnon said. “I think the national average right now, we’re at 5.5 or 5.6 on employment shortage in Canada and our meat processing sector, we’re over the 10 per cent mark so there’s been a huge employment shortage that triggers down to everybody in the food chain that’s affected by this.”

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MacKinnon said they always want to hire Canadians first.

“Canadians that want to apply for these jobs, our members will hire Canadians, however, not everybody wants to work in our sector so there’s an education there for us to prove that these jobs are worthwhile,” MacKinnon said. “These are great full time full benefits jobs.”

MacKinnon said the Temporary Foreign Worker Program doesn’t work because the need for labour is not temporary.

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF