Canada's health minister talks migrant worker crisis, border restrictions and COVID-19 tests
'I think the reform needs to happen,' Minister Patty Hajdu says about agri-farm sector
Since March, Windsor-Essex's agriculture sector was uniquely impacted by the pandemic, with a majority of the region's cases arising in migrant farm workers. Though cases remain relatively low and stable nearly seven months since COVID-19 first began, the issues the disease emphasized in the agri-farm sector have received significant attention from municipal, provincial and federal politicians.
CBC News spoke with federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu about what the Windsor-Essex migrant worker crisis looked like from her perspective. But the minister also commented on new border restrictions and COVID-19 testing.
Three migrant farm workers died after testing positive for COVID-19 in Ontario this year. Right now, more than 40 per cent of cases in Windsor, Essex — more than a thousand cases — are people in the agri-farm sector. How do you feel things went over the last six months from your chair?
The Windsor-Essex outbreak was a really tough one and the loss of life is tragic. And of course, we know that those migrant workers that died were far, far away from home and some of them are really young. I'm a mom of two boys, and I can't help but think about the families that lost those young men. And so certainly our hearts go out to them.
But it just illustrates how seriously we have to take this virus, because, in fact, although we talk a lot about older people obviously being more prone to death, young people can die of this, too. I think it illustrates just how governments have to work really, really hard together with industry to protect everyone in Canada.
WATCH: Health Minister Patty Hajdu's full interview with CBC's Chris Ensing
And speaking about industry, back in the summer, you called the way that some farms treat workers a national disgrace. What's been done to change that?
My colleague, Minister Quatro is working now on temporary farm worker reforms. I did some of that when I was the minister of labour. And I can say that by and large, most farms and most industry players that use temporary foreign workers are doing so in a way that respects their obligations as employers to provide safe and sound accommodation, to respect their rights in Canada, to pay them accurately, to make sure that they're getting appropriate rest periods and the like.
But there are some folks that don't. And we've seen this challenge all along with temporary farm workers. And certainly in my time as minister of employment, it was one of the areas that I think was the most distressing, because, as I mentioned earlier, many times, these are folks with very little route to complain about the treatment they're receiving or receive support to get better access to officials that can help them with exercising those rights.
Some of the reforms that we've made, I think, for example, around work permits and the ability to change locations — if in fact there is allegations of abuse and those kinds of situations — I think are positive changes. I think the reform needs to happen.
I want to thank all the advocacy groups that work on behalf of the temporary farm workers in this country who continue to push for reform and to continue to give the government options in terms of how to conduct that reform.
CBC News heard criticism from farm owners and mayors from Ontario to British Columbia. Many said that they wanted more of a federal approach to that quarantine period. As minister of health, with more migrant workers coming in January to Windsor-Essex specifically, is there anything different that will happen this time when that wave of workers arrives?
We've supported workers to be quarantined on farms. In fact, employers received financial support to ensure those workers were quarantined appropriately. And we went in, as you know, and helped when there were outbreaks through the farm. Canadian Red Cross in the case of Windsor-Essex, really helped support the isolation of sick workers and the contact tracing in the support for the communities that were really struggling to contain those outbreaks.
I think farmers have an obligation when they're bringing in labour to make sure that they are providing accommodation that is safe. And some of that accommodation, as you know, is really unsafe. And we anticipate that workers will be taken care of better. Employers have been put on notice that they do need to take their obligations seriously. I know my colleague, Minister Bibeau, is always working with farmers to make sure that we understand what those specific needs are and we'll continue to do that.
But at the end of the day, this is an asset to those farms and they need to treat those workers well so that they can continue to operate. It's important to their own financial security as well. Obviously, they need to have a strong and healthy workforce in order to continue operating.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.