Guelph ON, 15 May 2023 – The Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Association (OFVGA) welcomes the completion of the Jamaican government’s fact-finding report into the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP). The report found that a large proportion of Jamaican farm workers have a positive view of SAWP, and the vast majority of Ontario farm employers using the program are operating within its parameters.
In other words, despite the incessant accusations about Ontario farms from Canadian activist groups that want to foreign workers to join unions, the country of Jamaica says there is nothing to worry about. The report categorically states that no evidence was found to support activist claims that the program’s working conditions were akin to systemic slavery. It was these dramatic allegations that triggered the thorough independent investigation of SAWP by a Jamaican government taskforce last year.
“We recognize there is always more that can be done to ensure all workers have the opportunity for a positive and safe working experience while they help our farms grow fruits and vegetables for the Canadian public,” says Bill George, grape grower and chair of the OFVGA’s labour committee. “However, the report clearly shows that this can be done with specific targeted measures rather than assigning hateful and broad labels to all the hardworking farmers and their employees in the program.”
SAWP first started in 1966 with 264 Jamaican workers who came to Ontario to help with apple harvest. Today, the heavily regulated, government-approved program is open to workers from Mexico, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean Islands who come to Canada to work for a defined period of time before going home for the winter.
The report also shows that SAWP is a program highly valued by both Jamaicans and Canadians. For the Jamaican workers, their jobs in Canada let them support their families with health care and education, establish farms and businesses and create jobs in their communities back home.
Their Canadian employers rely on the skills and expertise of their Jamaican workforce in the face of a large and growing shortage of labour in the agricultural sector. Without these workers, many labour-intensive fruit and vegetable crops that Canadians love could no longer be grown here in Ontario.
“Most importantly, the report highlights the strong sense of pride and self-fulfillment that the Jamaican workers derive from their farm work in Canada,” adds George. “In a world where many people struggle with mental health and with finding a sense of purpose, we need to acknowledge and encourage things capable of elevating people’s pride and self-fulfillment rather than trying to destroy it with harmful labels and negativity.”
In 2021, OFVGA launched the More than a Migrant Worker initiative to give international farm workers a chance to tell their stories, in their own words, of their lives in Canada and why they come here to work.
