Statement from Fruit and Vegetable Growers of Canada (FVGC) Labour Working Group Chair, Beth Connery, on the Conservative proposal to scrap Canada’s Temporary Foreign Workers’ Program

“Federal Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre today called for the scrapping of the federal Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program. While we will not comment on the effectiveness of the TFW as it applies to other industries or sectors of our economy, the importance of its agricultural streams, and specifically the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP), cannot be overstated.

Labour shortages are one of the most acute threats to the availability, affordability, and diversity of Canadian-grown fruits and vegetables, and by extension to Canadians’ food security. It has been demonstrated that without access to international worker programs, growers would be unable to secure the workforce they need to plant, care for, and harvest perishable crops—leading to higher food prices, more waste, and increased reliance on imports.

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