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July 08, 2019TEMPORARY FOREIGN WORKERS IN AGRICULTURE, 2015 Statistics Canada has released new data on the number of temporary foreign workers who come to Canada to work in agriculture. This information was produced by linking data from the Temporary Foreign Worker Program with data from agricultural operations from the 2016 Census of Agriculture.
There were 45,005 temporary foreign workers in agriculture in 2015 including single individuals who held more than one job in different locations during 2015. The bulk of these workers were employed in three types of crop farms: vegetable/melon farming (26 per cent), fruit/tree nut farming (23 per cent) and greenhouse/nursery/floriculture production (34 per cent). These three sectors accounted for 83 per cent of temporary foreign workers in agriculture in 2015.
The number of temporary foreign workers is highest in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia, accounting for 87 per cent of positions held by temporary foreign workers in Canadian agriculture even though they accounted for 65 per cent of all agricultural employment in Canada. Employment of temporary foreign workers is disproportionately high (relative to share of total agricultural employment) in Ontario and Quebec. The share of temporary foreign workers is closer to the share of total agricultural employment for British Columbia and Nova Scotia. There is lower than proportional employment of temporary foreign workers in the prairie provinces and Atlantic Canada outside of Nova Scotia.
Statistics Canada noted that there were 3,581 farm operations that reported using at least one temporary foreign worker in 2015. This amounts to 6.6 per cent of the 54,353 farms that reported employment during 2015 as part of the most recent Census of Agriculture. British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador (which has only a small number of farms) all reported a higher proportion of farm operations that had at least one temporary foreign worker. The share of farm operations reporting at least one temporary worker was slightly lower than the national average in Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia and substantially lower in New Brunswick and all three prairie provinces.
The largest number of temporary foreign workers come to Canada from Mexico, followed by Jamaica and Guatemala. Together, these three countries accounted for 86 per cent of the temporary foreign workers in Canada.
Note that the number of temporary foreign workers by origin is lower than the number of positions held by temporary foreign workers because of individuals who held positions at multiple locations.
Source: Statistics Canada. Agricultural sector workers from the Temporary Foreign Workers Program, 2015, Table 32-10-0439-01 Paid agricultural work in the year prior to the census
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