I've timed my speech. It should be seven minutes.
I apologize for not translating it into French, but I am very pleased to be here and I hope you will listen to what I'm going to say.
Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak before the standing committee.
My name is Erika Del Carmen Fuchs, and I'm an organizer with Justicia for Migrant Workers B.C. Since 2005 we've been advocating for and working with seasonal migrant farm workers brought in under the federal seasonal agricultural workers program, the SAWP, with over 2,500 workers now coming from Mexico and the Caribbean to B.C.
We are part of the Migrant Justice Network, which includes various sectors--community organizations, unions such as the Canadian Labour Congress, churches, migrant workers, and other concerned individuals. You will hear from others in the network in coming days.
We are also part of an economic security project with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and SFU and UBC, as you heard before, which looks at the impacts of weakening provincial employment standards on immigrant and migrant farm workers. This report will be out shortly. We echo many of those recommendations.
In our numerous visits and direct contacts with migrant farm workers, we see firsthand their conditions--in particular, the sometimes substandard and even appalling housing conditions, as well as the medical, social, labour, and other problems they face.