Thank you, Chair and the HUMA committee, for asking me to appear today.
My name is Ken Forth. I’m a vegetable farmer in Hamilton, Ontario. Our family has been farming for many generations. Currently it’s me and my son’s family.
I also serve as president of the F.A.R.M.S. operation, the Foreign Agricultural Resource Management Services. We do the administration and logistics for the movement of 25,000 to 30,000 workers to Ontario, Atlantic Canada and Manitoba.
The fruit and vegetable business is very much a hands-on business. As an example, we have been employing people for over 100 years on our farms. Our farm has been involved in SAWP, the seasonal agricultural worker program, for 50 years, having workers from Jamaica.
The workers who work on the farms mean the world to us, much like family. They come here to help farmers, and for that matter, to help Canada to produce food. The result of their work is that they have a better standard of living back home, including education for their children.
The virus that has engulfed the world is most concerning to everyone. I can assure you that all farmers take this very seriously. There is much oversight on our program for the virus, including Service Canada, provincial ministries of labour and the real experts, the local public health officials and departments.
ESDC came out with a protocol just after the April 20 announcement, and the protocol was satisfactory. It was common sense and it worked for everybody. Most of us have been inspected and scrutinized many times this season through the various protocols. Our employees are very pleased with what they have seen, what they have heard and what we’re doing on our farms.
Let me be clear: We are very concerned that our foreign or domestic employees remain safe. How else could we think? We isolate new temporary workers for 14 days. When working, we stay apart as much as we can. When there is any way we will be any closer, workers wear masks, glasses or face shields. Farmers have gone to extraordinary lengths, not to mention thousands of dollars, to give confidence to our workers that it is safe. Farmers are very inventive, often going beyond what is required. As an example many have placed barriers in bunkhouses and on farm equipment to ensure a safe working environment.
In closing, the Government of Canada, provinces and local health officials should all be proud of the protocol they have put in place in very short order, and the farm community who responded to it. But here's a final word of caution: This has been very paralyzing for farmers. We have done the things demanded of us and beyond, and if we think we can be even better we do that. But we have five agencies scrutinizing us now. Any further scrutiny or add-ons will drive farmers away from this industry—some have already left—and make the job impossible: the job of the production of food for Canada.
We’ve seen the federal government, as an example, have the backs of landlords and multi-billion dollar multinational corporations. We would like them to have the backs of farmers the odd time, and we think we need it now. We are all for the security methods they have put in place to isolate our workers. As an example, on our farms our workers never leave the farm and they don’t want to leave it. They tell me they come here to work. They don’t want to get infected at a shopping mall or whatever. They put in orders to the local grocery store, and the local grocery store has the order ready every Friday. We pick it up and deliver it to them, and they’re very grateful for that. We believe they’re really safe and we believe that farmers are doing a better job than they’re being given credit for.
That’s my presentation to you, Chair.
Thank you very much.