The Mexican government has suspended the temporary foreign worker program with Canada following the COVID-19 related deaths of migrant workers in Leamington.
The Consul of Mexico in Leamington said the country will not resume the program until they can be sure all of the employees will be safe in Canada.
"We are looking to have proper or better conditions to ensure the safety of the workers," Alberto Bernal, Consul of Mexico in Leamington. "Something is getting short on this effort. We are looking that the conditions improve that proper authorities find out what happened that created the spread of the virus that affected these workers."
Bernal said they are especially interested in the investigation surrounding the COVID-related deaths of two young employees in Leamington.
The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit is working with the consul, the Ministry of Labour, the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers, and local hospitals to come up with a better way to protect the health and well-being of the employees.
"We are talking about not one or two people, we are talking about a significant number of people and their needs are different then many of the needs that we are seeing in the community, so I think we need to recognize that and we need to work on it to find a solution. I think a lot of the complexities are associated with this and the agencies that are working I think every agency is working as best they can to support them but the magnitude of the issues, it's just a lot and we need to work together to find better solutions," said Dr. Wajid Ahmed, Medical Officer of Health for Windsor-Essex.
Around 5,000 workers will not be allowed to come to Canada for peak growing season if the program is not restored. Justine Taylor with the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers said this will mostly affect field crops however many local greenhouses will also feel an impact.
"The impacts to greenhouses would be lesser than for field production but many field farmers have yet to receive the majority of their workforce and were prepared to receive that workforce when the harvest is nearing. This could have a very significant effect on field farmers. They would essentially not be able to harvest their crops and that would be very disruptive to the Canadian food supply chain," said Taylor.
Taylor indicated that greenhouse growers are doing their part to ensure safety protocols are in place by providing the proper PPE is provided and that all employees are being screened before going into work. However, physical distancing and other public health measures are harder to enforce within the residences provided.
"Really bunkhouses were not designed with pandemics in mind and I think that is something that we need to recognize. Certainly, as I mentioned we are more than happy to work with all stakeholders to address this issue because I think it will be a multi-pronged effort in order to address the accommodation issue and really make sure we are putting in place the best practices that will protect the workforce," said Taylor.
The Mexican Consulate said more proactive measures need to be put in place to protect these temporary foreign workers. He said the focus needs to be on applying proper public health protocols, especially when someone is required to self-isolate.
