GrainsWest Spring 2020

Spring 2020 Grains West 40 t’s painfully obvious Canadian agriculture has room to close its domestic labour gap. The message has been repeated often enough that it’s starting to fall on deaf ears. However, the industry may need to listen up if it wants to stem the exodus of domestic workers. It’s painfully obvious Canadian agriculture has room to close its domestic labour gap. The message has been repeated often enough that it’s starting to fall on deaf ears. However, the industry may need to listen up if it wants to stem the exodus of domestic workers. According to a blistering June 2019 report from the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council (CAHRC), How Labour Challenges Will Shape the Future of Agriculture: Agriculture I HELP! I NEED SOMEBODY Forecast to 2029 , Canada has a problem, and it’s only going to worsen. In 2017, there were 16,500 vacant domestic farm jobs across the country, which cost the industry $2.9 billion in lost revenue. More than doubling in a mere three years, that number is up from $1.4 billion lost in 2014. Farmers often turn to international labourers to bridge the gap, but that’s a time consuming and costly process. Despite this, foreign labour in Canada now represents 17 per cent of the overall farm workforce. By the end of this decade, CAHRC predicts domestic jobs going unfilled could climb to 123,000, or 32 per cent, of workforce positions. The agriculture sector has inherent labour issues that cannot be remedied overnight. These include seasonal fluctuations in employment and the shrinking of agricultural operations in rural areas. A raft of perceived negatives includes physically demanding work. As well, agricultural managers cannot raise wages and send costs down the line. There is real cause for concern. “While many sectors face one or two of these labour challenges, no other sector faces all of them at once, and their cumulative effect on Canada’s agriculture industry has added to the difficulties agricultural employers face,” the report states. However, this doesn’t surprise Debra Hauer, a senior manager at CAHRC. “Ag producers are finding it increasingly more difficult to find and keep workers,” she said. “Producers have larger operations FEATURE BY TREVOR BACQUE • PHOTOS COURTESY OF HUBKA FARMS Report warns agricultural labour shortage remains amassive challenge