British Columbia’s agricultural sector is 6,000 to 8,000 workers short of typical employment levels as the sector battles with concerns over COVID-19. “We do know farmers and producers are scaling back some of their production to reflect the labour available to them,” Agriculture Minister Lana Popham said. “We do see some adjustments coming from the agriculture industry.
As we come to the bounty of our season we will see a deficit in our labour.” The shortages mostly come from an inability to get temporary foreign workers into Canada during the pandemic.
Popham says about 1,500 temporary foreign workers arrived in B.C. before travel restrictions due to COVID-19 were put in place. [ Sign up for our Health IQ newsletter for the latest