Mr. Speaker, the government's management of the temporary foreign workers file is a disaster, and the pandemic has just made things worse.
After making farmers responsible for ensuring that their workers quarantine, the government ended up offering them $1,500 in compensation, but that amount will be slashed in half as of June 16.
Our farmers, who are still bringing in workers, will get half of the assistance they need. On top of that, the workers are coming in late after being stuck in quarantine because of the federal government and the incompetence of Switch Health.
The minister made a promise when she announced the program; she said, “This program will be available as long as the Quarantine Act is in force”.
She gave her word and needs to get her act together. Farmers never asked to take over responsibility for quarantines from the federal government. The federal government needs to do its part and see this through.