Thank you. My name is Cyr Couturier, and I'm the chair of the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council.
I'm an aquaculture scientist and chair of the aquaculture programs at Memorial University, as well as the director on many industry associations, including the Canadian Federation of Agriculture. I'm also a past president of some other national farmer associations, providing about $3 billion in GDP and 30,000 jobs to middle-class Canadians.
The workforce needs in Canada's agriculture industry are something that CAHRC has been examining for more than 10 years. Through our focused labour market intelligence research, it's clear that the industry cannot continue to produce healthy, safe and affordable food for Canadians and for global consumers without ensuring that workers are secured and in place to do their jobs. The COVID pandemic has put a greater spotlight on this.
I can confirm that there's no more time to waste. We must work towards longer-term and systemic solutions to the persistent labour shortages that the agriculture industry is facing.
CAHRC's labour market research has clarified that job vacancies are exceptionally high in agriculture compared to other industries. For example, they resulted, in 2018, according to our LMI research, in a loss of $3 billion in revenue to farmers. The inability of farmers to fill all of their vacant positions with either Canadian or foreign workers makes the business of food production in Canada very stressful and difficult. International workers come to Canada to work on farms and fill positions when Canadians can't be found. Although approximately 60,000 foreign workers are brought in each year, thousands of vacancies still persist. There were 16,500 vacancies in 2018. In fact, workforce shortages are doubling every 10 years.
The latest assessment indicates that the labour gap of Canadians available to work in this sector is 63,000 a year. It's expected to grow to 123,000 by 2029. Businesses that are unable to fill the vacancies face excessive stress and production losses. Many report delaying expansion plans and forgoing operations. Securing a full team of workers is challenging for farmers at any time. It's especially challenging during a pandemic, yet the pandemic has highlighted that food production is part of Canada's critical infrastructure in maintaining the ability for food businesses to operate effectively, even during a global health crisis. It's critically important to us all. Food businesses continue to operate through the pandemic, and thankfully have been designated as essential workplaces, so that Canadian families can continue to eat homegrown fruits, vegetables, meat, seafood, dairy and grains.
However, keeping agriculture businesses operational has not been easy for either industry or government due to extensive labour shortages and unique workforce management challenges. COVID has highlighted not only how complex it is to maintain public health during a pandemic but also just how important and complex it is to manage workforce issues in this sector of the Canadian industry.
Labour-related shortages were exacerbated in 2020 due to the pandemic. Our recently released study on the impacts of COVID-19 on labour was shown to cost primary agriculture $2.9 billion in lost revenue last year, simply owing to COVID-19 impacts. I can forward that report if you're interested.
COVID has certainly put a spotlight on the need for focused attention to address the persistent and pervasive issues of workforce shortages that continue to undermine the industry's ability to operate at full capacity. Industry continues to stress the need for stabilizing worker availability and providing support for farm business owners through the pandemic and beyond.
The industry relies on temporary foreign worker programs to fill position vacancies when Canadian workers are unavailable, so the efficiency of Canada's temporary foreign worker program is critical.
Since the workforce challenges facing the agriculture and agri-food sector are not temporary, the sector needs an integrated, permanent solution to this long-standing and growing problem—one that includes workable immigration pathways for agriculture and agri-food workers. The proposed pathway to permanency announced by the government just a few weeks ago may provide part of the solution for agriculture and agri-food labour shortages. However, other solutions may be needed.
I'd like to introduce my colleague, Mr. Mark Chambers. He is the co-chair of Canada's agriculture and agri-food labour task force, as well as vice-president of Canadian pork production at Sunterra Farms Limited, a family-owned business that focuses on pig production and meat processing in Alberta, serving Canadian and global customers.
Mr. Chambers.