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Human Resources committee  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. opera

May 4th, 2020Committee meeting

Ken Forth

Human Resources committee  I would. You're absolutely right, but we don't choose them. The ministries of labour in those countries choose them, and usually they have to be farm oriented in one way or another. They talk about putting in students, and lots of us hire lots of students, but our year starts on

May 4th, 2020Committee meeting

Ken Forth

Agriculture committee  No doubt the farming community in Ontario and Canada will never forget 12:01 on Wednesday, March 18, as it marked the closure of non-residents, and in particular farm workers under the seasonal agricultural worker program, from entering Canada. This was devastating news to stakeh

May 27th, 2020Committee meeting

Ken Forth

Agriculture committee  As of today, we have 13,438 seasonal agricultural workers who have arrived in the province of Ontario. I'm sorry; that was last year. This year we have 10,964 who have arrived, so we are basically at 81.6% of the number of workers expected to have landed here. Overall, in all th

May 27th, 2020Committee meeting

Ken Forth

Agriculture committee  We do know that for crops like asparagus we expect a 50% loss this year because the workers weren't able to get here on time for that. Some of the vegetable people who plant crops annually have cut back by as much as 25% because they're afraid of what the market is going to be. I

May 27th, 2020Committee meeting

Ken Forth

Agriculture committee  I've heard that some people have some problems accessing it, but I haven't heard of anybody's getting it yet. However, it's early in the game. We still expect it to happen. The Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food called me personally before the announcement. She told me that it

May 27th, 2020Committee meeting

Ken Forth

Agriculture committee  It's not their fault, but in the last five years they have scared the heck out of farmers, without a doubt. Now they're doing these virtual tours of the bunkhouse. That's something that the local public health units have already done. I know where they're going, and I have to sa

May 27th, 2020Committee meeting

Ken Forth

Agriculture committee  Yes, it is definitely in the supply country. For example, Trinidad and Tobago still haven't decided if they're going to send workers or not. Apparently they talk about it every Thursday, and tomorrow is another Thursday, so hopefully they'll open it up. The eastern Caribbean

May 27th, 2020Committee meeting

Ken Forth