According to a new report by the Department of Agriculture, 35% of Canadian Farmers Face Labor Shortages. Report

More than a third of Canadian farms face labour shortages of high- and low-skilled workers.

“Around a third of producers, 35 percent, were facing labour market challenges in 2022,” said the report titled “2022 Strategic Issues Survey With Producers,” obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter.

“Recruitment staff, regardless of their skill level, was an important challenge that producers had to confront,” the report said. It also stated that “the pandemic and massive quitting that followed, “The Great Resignation”, might have increased labour market problems for farmers .”

The report showed that crop growers and organic poultry producers were most affected by labour shortages.

“Recruiting staff was a problem for over eight out of ten producers who faced labour market challenges, 84 percent,” the report said. “Recruiting issues pertained mainly to hiring high skilled (39 percent) or low skilled (50 percent) workers.”

Leger Marketing Inc., a market research and analytics company, received $99,471 from the agriculture department to conduct the study, which included responses from over 1,400 farmers nationwide.

Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau stated in a recent departmental planning , that Canadian farmers face “reliable access” to labor.

The document said that agricultural labour shortages “were exacerbated for farms and food processing operations during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

‘An ongoing barrier ‘

The “Strategic Issues Survey”, a survey by the agriculture department, also showed that Atlantic Canada’s farmers and those in B.C. were more likely to be affected by labour shortages than other provinces. They were less likely to experience labour shortages in Atlantic Canada and B.C. than Alberta or the Prairie provinces.

In 2019, the Senate agriculture committee wrote a report addressing issues facing Canadian farmers, such as labour shortages, which the report called “an ongoing barrier.”

” The entire agricultural and agrifood sectors are currently affected by labour shortages.” said the report “Made in Canada: Growing Canada’s Value-Added Food Sector .”

The report cited a 2016 study from the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council that said the agricultural sector was short 59,000 workers in 2019 and estimated that number would climb to 114,000 by 2025.

” Further, although labour shortages in large urban areas are generally less severe, some are much more acute in rural areas, which are less appealing to many Canadians,” said the Senate report. The low Canadian birthrate is another factor that will hinder these industries from replacing their workforces over the long-term .”

The report stated that increased immigration for those who are interested in farming could reduce the shortage of labour.

“Raising awareness about the reality of agricultural careers should therefore be a priority,” the report said. Students should be more informed about agricultural work, and how new technologies affect the sector .”

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