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By Racquel Porter
Trade Unionist Helene Davis-Whyte is urging the Jamaican Government to asses and mitigate any potential fallout in the farm work programme, following Canada's announcement that it will reduce temporary foreign workers.
Canada's Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, has declared that this is necessary as his administration struggles to bring down the number of temporary residents.
Mrs Davis-Whyte, speaking Tuesday morning with Radio Jamaica News, pointed out that although Mr Trudeau said there is an exception with regards to the agriculture sector, a restructuring of the temporary foreign worker programme will affect Jamaicans.
"I think Canadians have solved their problem, in terms of their labour shortage, and... their population growth has improved," she observed.
There would therefore be "less need (for labour) in certain areas," she said, and in that regard is urging the Jamaican Government to "be very proactive, think ahead and look down the road as to what the programme will look like in a couple years, and we need to start that kind of discussion from now."
Minister not perturbed
But Minister of Labour Pearnel Charles Junior has declared that he is not expecting any significant fallout from the Canadian Government's announcement as it relates to farm workers, noting that "Prime Minister Trudeau made it clear that there will be exceptions for the food security sectors like agriculture, and food and fish processing, as well as construction and healtcare, where acute staff shortages still exist in Canada."
Davis Whyte, General Secretary of the Jamaica Association of Local Government Officers, and former President of the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions, headed a fact-finding mission to Canada in 2022, looking at conditions under which seasonal agricultural workers from Jamaica are working in that country.
That came in the wake of several reports of very poor and discriminatory treatment of some of these workers at the farms on which they were employed.
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