Foothills MP and Shadow Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour, John Barlow, says one of the biggest problems facing the ag sector is access to labour.

A report from the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council says a labour shortage has cost Canada's agriculture industry $2.9 billion in lost sales.

Barlow says tapping into resources like immigration is going to help fill these vacancies, as, after all, Canada was built on people coming from all over the world to pioneer the west through agriculture.

"Absolutely, we want to ensure Canadians have first crack at these jobs, but when there aren't Canadians available who are willing to fill these jobs, we must take a look at immigration, and when we look at immigration, it has to be a pathway to permanent residency and a pathway to Canada."

He points to a growing rural-urban divide as one of the reasons Canadians aren't interested in filling these roles in the agriculture sector.

Barlow says the Conservative Party wants to put a more efficient immigration system in place to boost the sector.

"Something that's going to be based specifically on agriculture," he said. "We'll have Service Canada employees who will understand agriculture, understand it's time sensitive and make it more efficient for the agriculture sector to be able to access."

Earlier this year, the Federal Government announced a three-year immigration pilot to bring in full-time, non-seasonal agricultural workers with a pathway to permanent residency, which the industry welcomed to help fill jobs in meat-packing facilities.

"We've pushed hard for the pilot program for meat processors through the Temporary Foreign Worker," Barlow explains. "Like many other things with the Liberal Government, they haven't been able to get it out the door. They made the announcement, but actually can't get this program up and running."

He says Party Leader Andrew Scheer plans to appoint an Inter-provincial Trade Minister if elected, which will help with labour mobility problems.

Barlow says attracting women and Indigenous People to the industry will be another key piece of the puzzle in tackling labour concerns.

"We did a study a few years ago about attracting women to the skilled trades. It was really interesting, one of the highest growth areas of women entering the workforce is agriculture."

He adds, post-secondary students, should look to agriculture when exploring careers, as there are many opportunities for well paid and highly technical jobs.

 

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