Feds failing to protect migrant workers from virus

The federal government is failing to ensure agricultural producers are properly protecting migrant workers from COVID-19, according to Canada’s auditor general, including in some cases where there is evidence to suspect health and safety violations.

The explosive finding is contained in a new report from auditor general Karen Hogan released Thursday, following numerous outbreaks among temporary foreign workers living in cramped conditions on farms since the start of the pandemic.

The Migrant Workers Alliance for Change says it has confirmed the deaths of six of migrant workers from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, though the advocacy group says the actual number is likely far higher. The Liberal government promised new requirements for agricultural producers as well as tens of millions in new funding at the start of the pandemic to protect the roughly 50,000 people who come to Canada as seasonal farm workers each year.

Those new requirements included proper accommodations for quarantining migrant workers for 14 days after their arrival in Canada as well as those who test positive for COVID-19, and measures to manage outbreaks

Yet while inspectors at Employment and Social Development Canada deemed virtually all farms compliant with those regulations, Hogan says the vast majority of those passing grades came without proper inspections.

“We found that the department assessed almost all employers as compliant with the COVID-19 requirements … despite having gathered little or no evidence to demonstrate this,” the auditor general’s report reads.