By Alice McFarlane

Agriculture Roundup for Monday December 13, 2021

Dec 13, 2021 | 10:19 AM

OTTAWA — Canada’s auditor general said federal inspectors are failing to ensure agricultural producers are properly protecting migrant workers from COVID-19.

Auditor general Karen Hogan said that includes some situations where inspectors have received reports and evidence that health and safety violations have occurred.

The finding is contained in a new auditor general’s report tabled in the House of Commons and follows numerous outbreaks among temporary foreign workers at farms since the start of the pandemic.

The Liberal government promised new requirements for agricultural producers as well as tens of millions in new funding last year to protect the roughly 50,000 people who come to Canada as seasonal farm workers each year.

While government inspectors deemed virtually all farms compliant with those regulations, Hogan said the vast majority of those passing grades came without proper inspections.

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In some cases inspectors overlooked or ignored evidence suggesting employers were violating requirements, leaving workers with increased risks of getting sick.

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The vice-chair of the BC Dairy Association said recent flooding of farms in the Fraser Valley may be a turning point for farmers who were rethinking their jobs.

Sarah Sache said farmers on the Sumas Prairie had low stores of feed already because of the previous scorching summer and what they did have was damaged in the flooding.

The storms in mid-November swamped dozens of dairy, poultry, pig and berry farms in the Sumas Prairie area of Abbotsford, B-C, leaving some under as much as two-and-a-half metres of water.

Gary Baars, who owns a dairy farm in the region, said flooding and inflation have reduced profit margins.

He said many are in debt in the dairy industry and he can see some farmers deciding to change careers.

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Potato farmers in Prince Edward Island are getting financial assistance from the province nearly three weeks after shipments to the United States were suspended after the discovery of fungal potato wart.

Economic Growth Minister Matthew MacKay said the provincial government is launching the Potato Financing Program, which will make fixed interest working and capital loans available to potato farmers to cover operational costs.

The province also set up wage support for potato exporters and trucking companies who previously shipped the crop to the south.

This comes after officials from both Canada and the U.S. met last week to discuss the export suspension.

Agriculture Minister Bloyce Thompson said it doesn’t seem likely the ban on exports will be lifted any time soon.

Canada suspended all shipments of fresh potatoes from P.E.I. to the U.S. late last month after the fungal disease was discovered in two fields in the province.

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alice.mcfarlane@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @farmnewsNOW