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Originally published:

October 2018
Vol. 104 Issue 10

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Stories In This Edition

Sheep thrills

Farm employers on edge

Right-to-farm case upheld

Snow puts the brakes on Peace grain harvest

Editorial: The hands that feed us

Back Forty: Saving farmland fruitless without water

Op Ed: US could learn a thing (or two) from Canada

Piece-rate study sets stage for payday changes

Photo: Day at the Farm

Berry growers report decent growing season

FIRB posed to set live BC chicken prices – again

BCYAF grants support key 4-H initiatives

Cherry growers hit hardest by wildfire smoke

Ag Briefs: Winner

Ag Briefs: Right to Farm Act review cancelled

Local governments can’t undermine ALR rules

Winfield grower has ambitious cannabis plans

Province funds land-matching program

BC Fresh expands to meet national demand

Challenging year fails to daunt new producer

Corn trials focus on lower heat units for BC

When the right thing turns out to be wrong

Wildfires prompt local response planning

Mixer-feeder offers all-in-one feeding option

Non-traditional forage mixtures promising

Small farmers network targets knowledge gap

Hazelnut renewal enters second phase

Research: Scratch that itch

Partners announced for farmers’ market trail

FV land limitations means higher density

Fair lives up to its farm roots

Pumpkin growers use crop to reach out to public

Wannabe Farmer: The usual gives plenty of cause for thanks

Woodshed: Wishful thinking as Caribbean holiday nears

Jude’s Kitchen: Fall heralds heartier meals, yummy appies

 

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10 hours ago

Farmland Advantage is receiving a $445,000 grant from the federal government. The program, the “brainchild” of Invermere cattle rancher Dave Zehnder, provides compensation to farmers for their conservation efforts to protect BC’s grasslands, riparian areas and wildlife habitat. The funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada under the Species at Risk Partnerships on Agricultural Lands (SARPAL) and Priority Places programs, will be administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC. Rewarding farmers for enhancing riparian areas appeared in our March 2022 edition and you can view it at ... See MoreSee Less

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Rewarding farmers for enhancing riparian areas

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INVERMERE – Farmers and ranchers in the Columbia Valley will continue to see rewards for taking action to conserve and enhance important riparian areas on their farms. The Windermere District Farmer...
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5 days ago

A standing-room only crowd of more than 250 people attended a public hearing the Agricultural Land Commission hosted in Langley Monday night regarding a proposal to include 305 acres controlled by the federal government in the Agricultural Land Reserve. More than 76,000 people have signed an online petition asking municipal and provincial governments to protect the land from development, and for the federal government to grant a long-term lease to the Heppells. Read more in this morning's Farm News Update from Country Life in BC. conta.cc/3XYXw6k ... See MoreSee Less

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Your weekly farm news update

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The agricultural news source in British Columbia since 1915 January 25 2023 Surrey ALR inclusion cheered A standing-room only crowd of more than 250 people attended a public hearing the Agricultural L
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Mike Manion Pitt Meadows City Councillor

2 months ago

Christmas tree growers in BC are seeing strong demand this season and prices remain comparable to last year. But the number of tree farms has decreased dramatically over the past five years and the province will increasingly need to look elsewhere if it wants to meet local demand. More in this week's Farm News Update from Country Life in BC. ... See MoreSee Less

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Christmas trees in demand

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Christmas tree growers in BC are seeing strong demand, with high quality trees making it to market. “The market is good. We’ll probably outdo last year and last year was one of our best years…
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2 months ago

Another four poultry flocks in the Fraser Valley have tested positive for avian influenza over the weekend -- 15 in the last week alone. There are 60 farms currently under quarantine in BC, more than any other province in Canada and three times that of Alberta, which ranks second. Officials maintain the virus is being spread by dust and groundwater and not farm-to-farm transmission. No farms in the Interior have tested positive this fall. ... See MoreSee Less

Another four poultry flocks in the Fraser Valley have tested positive for avian influenza over the weekend -- 15 in the last week alone. There are 60 farms currently under quarantine in BC, more than any other province in Canada and three times that of Alberta, which ranks second. Officials maintain the virus is being spread by dust and groundwater and not farm-to-farm transmission. No farms in the Interior have tested positive this fall.
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Avian influenza virus can be killed by chlorine at no higher a concentration than is present in drinking water, so unless farms are using untreated groundwater in their barns I don't see how it could be a source of transmission. www.researchgate.net/publication/5594208_Chlorine_Inactivation_of_Highly_Pathogenic_Avian_Influen...

2 months ago

In a surprise move, Lana Popham -- hailed at the recent BC Dairy Industry Conference as a key ally of the agriculture sector -- has been replaced by Abbotsford-Mission MLA Pam Alexis as part of a cabinet overhaul today by new BC premier David Eby. Popham will now oversee Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport. The two ministers worked closely together following the atmospheric river events last fall. ... See MoreSee Less

In a surprise move, Lana Popham -- hailed at the recent BC Dairy Industry Conference as a key ally of the agriculture sector -- has been replaced by Abbotsford-Mission MLA Pam Alexis as part of a cabinet overhaul today by new BC premier David Eby. Popham will now oversee Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport. The two ministers worked closely together following the atmospheric river events last fall.Image attachment
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Goes to show how far-removed our current government is from the agricultural sector. To put someone in this position who has no farming background is a slap in the face to all of our hard-working producers.

Going to be a heck of a learning curve. Helping the agricultural community recover from the biggest natural disasters in history, handling the avian influenza outbreak that is threatening our poultry industry, dealing with a crisis in meat processing, managing ongoing threats from climate change, supporting producers who are facing unprecedented inflation in an industry with very slim margins to begin with..... to name a few of the challenges our new Minister will have to face all with one of the lowest budgets of any ministry. I wish her the best of luck but I hope she's got a lot of support around her.

Best of wishes in your new position

Congrats to Pam, cool to see a Fraser Valley based ag minister but also so sad to see Lana reassigned . I have no doubt she will do an amazing job in her new role.

Will be missed by #meiernation

Bryce Rashleigh

Nooooooo!

Lana did a shit job and now we have a minister with no farming background at all. Aren’t we lucky..

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Farm employers on edge

Changes to foreign worker program creating uncertainty

October 2, 2018 byPeter Mitham

ABBOTSFORD – Another round of changes to the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program has farm employers on edge after the hassles of obtaining workers for the 2018 season.

Come 2019, workers from Mexico will have to provide biometric identification prior to arrival while employers face new housing standards against a backdrop of an ongoing review of the standards themselves.

The concern was palpable at an all-day workshop the BC Agriculture Council organized in Abbotsford on September 21 to help growers understand what lies ahead. Biometrics and housing dominated the concerns expressed by the approximately 50 growers and 30 government and farm sector representatives in the room.

“God help us with the biometrics,” quipped Hugo Velázquez Vázquez, co-ordinator of the SAWP program at Mexico’s consulate in Vancouver, towards the end of the day, having previously congratulated growers on surviving a season that saw 5,777 workers from Mexico arrive in BC despite processing delays that left many applications unfilled.

Alarm bells regarding Canada’s plans to collect biometric data have been going off since July, when growers were still grappling with the lack of workers needed for this year’s harvest.

Approximately 24,000 workers will have to be processed and the information is good for 10 years. While a commitment exists to ensure a processing capacity of 1,000 people a week, up from an original estimate of 250, the work will still take nearly half a year. It will also mean a second trip to Mexico City for participants, which could cost them hundreds of dollars. There’s a fear some workers may say it’s not worth the expense.

However, workers approved for SAWP by December 31 won’t have to provide biometric data, so long as they arrive within six months of approval.

Service Canada began accepting applications on August 10. BCAC advises growers to submit completed applications by November 7. Growers have been told it could take six months from application to a worker’s arrival. Approximately eight applications had been received as of last month’s meeting, and at least one grower had already received an approval. Once an application arrives in Mexico, it can take 144 days before a worker lands in Canada.

Mexico is a particular problem because of systemic issues related to how applications are processed. A worker’s name may be typed five times prior to arriving in Canada, for example, because Canada’s confidentiality protocols require documents to be faxed or snail-mailed rather than submitted electronically. Re-typing increases the risk of misspellings and delays.

This isn’t the case with workers from Jamaica, which has collected biometric data since 2013 and after an initial hiccup has eliminated delays. Processing now takes about two months. Jamaica sent nearly 1,400 workers to BC this year, and the number is growing.

Under the table

Reports this summer that an increasing number of foreign nationals with tourist visas were working on BC farms for cash is heightening concerns regarding access to foreign workers. BCAC could not give examples, but it issued a stern warning to members that such practices could jeopardize existing labour programs, including the agriculture stream of the temporary foreign worker (TFW) program as well as work provisions of visas for youth exchange participants.

Those programs are already coming under provincial scrutiny. The province has announced plans to establish a registry of foreign workers as part of a $3 million overhaul of how employment standards are managed and enforced.

BC labour minister Harry Bains was not available for interviews, but ministry staff confirmed that SAWP workers would be included in the registry. The registry will facilitate government audits of workplaces where employees may be ignorant of their rights or subject to abuse.

“The goal is to strengthen protections for these vulnerable workers,” Bains’ staff told Country Life in BC.

Mexico removed 260 workers over safety and rights violations last year, and at least 125 this year. The latest incident regarded a farm that was paying workers a piece rate rather than the hourly wage stipulated by the program.

Glen Lucas, assistant general manager of the BCAC-owned Western Agriculture Labour Initiative, says any registry should incorporate the one that exists for SAWP workers. Rather than duplicating SAWP’s registry, BCAC would like to see government channel agriculture’s portion of the new registry’s costs into SAWP education, such as last month’s workshop.

A key area for education is bullying and harassment.

Consular staff have been asking to see farms’ bullying and harassment policies in personnel manuals, something required since 2013 but seldom requested prior to 2018. Vázquez said it would be a key priority in 2019, as housing issues are resolved and harassment becomes responsible for a greater proportion of worker removals.

Paul Bergin, a prevention officer with WorkSafeBC, told growers a bullying and harassment policy must be part of staff manuals. This must be in the workers’ language, and signed along with the employment contract. However, agriculture accounts for a small fraction of the 1,100 complaints WorkSafeBC has investigated over the past five years.

Housing standards continue to evolve and a new standard isn’t likely to be ready until sometime in 2019. However, growers’ primary concern last month was with the furnishings required, from mattress types to appliances.

Growers were reminded that housing must be exclusively for workers and be equipped with a stationary stovetop or standard range and oven, as well as washing machines and dryers.

A fire safety plan is also a must.

A fire in Abbotsford this spring that displaced dozens of foreign workers was a wake-up call. Vázquez told growers that if someone dies in a blaze and appropriate fire detection and suppression systems weren’t in place, it could jeopardize SAWP altogether.

BCAC is working with the provincial fire commissionaire to develop a uniform standard for worker housing, as standards currently vary by municipality.

 

 

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