P.E.I. farms shorthanded at harvest because of changes to foreign worker program

Harvest season has been more challenging than usual on some PEI farms because they don't have the number of seasonal agricultural workers they would usually have, including the Bunny Borough Vegetable Company. Going into the new year when we were making applications to bring foreign workers here, a lot of applications were being turned down because they didn't properly meet the advertising requirements. McKenna says when farms apply for seasonal agricultural workers, they have to apply for a labour market impact assessment. Until now, agricultural businesses did not have to advertise their jobs as part of their application. This year, they did. I ended up surveying a lot of farms around the island and what I heard is that sometimes it took four to five tries with an application to get it right. Four to five tries means months of work. A lot of farms had to start in the spring without the workers that they needed. and some were unable to get the number of workers that they needed. McKenna's application was delayed because she had to resubmit multiple times. Two workers who usually arrive at the McKenna farm in April didn't come until July. In the fall, the farm usually gets workers transferred from a blueberry operation, but it was only approved for six workers down from ten. McKenna says she would like to see changes to make it easier for small farms in Atlantic Canada to bring in farm workers and to share them. To help us farms who are looking for workers, maybe only for two or three months, maybe we only need two workers, or if we could have workers on a more flexible work permit. So instead of just being named to one farm, could it be more of an open permit? The PEI Federation of Agriculture says finding enough farm workers is a major challenge. We have to get the harvest in when the time comes and these programs need to continue to be tailored to farmers to ensure that the labour force is there when they need it. Andrea McKenna says she has raised her concerns with federal politicians. To recognize that the smaller farms across Canada should be treated very different than the larger farms. For now, McKenna says the focus is on getting this year's harvest done with the workers they do have. Nancy Russell, CBC News, Brett Albin.