A recent report from Workforce WindsorEssex shows that newcomers could fill shortages in the agri-food industry.
The report, Newcomers in Agri-Food, identifies the support that employers in the agri-food industry need to improve employment outcomes for newcomers who are interested in entering the sector.
According to the report, the agri-food industry in Canada has experienced chronic labour shortages over the past decade.
The labour gap in farm agriculture was 63,000 in 2017, which is expected to reach 123,000 by 2027, due in part to a rapidly aging population and the fact that 90% of the Canadian population live in urban areas.
Research associate Kal Fakhreddin says that's one of the biggest problems they've identified in Windsor-Essex as well.
"Only about 10 per cent of the population lives in the Leamington Census Area, which is where most of the agri-food businesses are. And only 10 per cent of newcomers actually relocate to the Leamington CA area, so it's such a small per cent of newcomers and just generally in the population that transportation becomes a huge issue," she said.
The report also reviews other barriers that newcomers face when they attempt to enter the industry, including language barriers and a lack of Canadian work experience.
Fakhreddin says language is a barrier for new comers who aren't fluent in English in any industry.
"The agri-food industry actually has a unique ability to provide training because they've experienced working with migrant workers," she continued. "So they do having training modules in Spanish, and they know the best practises to train new comers with limited English language proficiency."
She says they do need to work on getting more employers to translate these services into more languages like Arabic and Hindi, which are major ones in Windsor-Essex.
Recommendations to improve the hiring landscape for employers in the report include:
- learning from Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) best practices
- connecting with local employment service providers and ESL programs to meet with qualified candidates
- making skill needs known to service providers and in job postings
- connecting with community or cultural organizations to meet with qualified candidates
Fakhreddin says the project was funded in part through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership, and the report found that government policies are really lacking,
"So hopefully this is a first step into seeing what's wrong with some of the government policies and what shortcomings they have. There's only one government policy geared towards new comers in the agri-food industry, and there should be more."
An event was held on Thursday with service providers, local employers, and industry associations to share the report’s findings and to discuss how the community can increase the hiring of newcomers while supporting employers with onboarding and training needs.
The entire report can be found here.