By Alice McFarlane

Feds introduce on-farm support fund

Oct 5, 2020 | 2:43 PM

MELFORT, Sask. – A federal government program has been introduced to help producers improve on-farm conditions for employees whether they are temporary foreign workers or Canadian citizens.

The $35 million Emergency On-Farm Support Fund will be used to improve living quarters, workstations and provide personal protective equipment to safeguard employees from COVID-19.

Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said protecting the health and well-being of all farm workers who are helping ensure the food security for Canadians has been a top priority since the beginning of the pandemic.

“So any workers, Canadians and migrants, are well protected that we put these measures in place,” Bibeau said. “Obviously COVID -19 has put the light on the weaknesses.”

Bibeau said priority will be given to higher risk operations.

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“It would be based on the working environment, housing conditions and the number of employees with the risk of contamination from one to another. I think it will be the overall evaluation of the working environment and housing environment,” she said.

The program will be cost-shared on a 50/50 basis with applicants up to $100,000. The one exception will be for female and young farmers where a 60/40 ratio will be used.

“When 51 per cent of the shares of the businesses are owned by a woman or a young farmer, they will benefit from a better cost share. In the agricultural sector we see the biggest diversity challenge is with women and youth but there are certainly indigenous and the black community that could also be included in this cost sharing,” she said.

The federal government will administer this program in Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

Other provinces, like Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec, are still finalizing program delivery arrangements.

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF