Working to preserve the strengths of SAWP in federal foreign worker program redesign

We’re well into another season and growers across Ontario have welcomed their international workers to their farms for another year. Since the first seasonal workers arrived in Canada in 1966, the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) has become foundational for edible horticulture in Ontario. 

Today, through SAWP, more than 30,000 workers from Mexico, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean Islands come to Canada annually for jobs in the horticulture sectors. Many thousands come through the Agricultural Stream of the federal Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program. 

In 2022, the federal government announced its intent to develop a new, single stream TFW program for all agriculture and seafood processing, with the goal of it being in place by 2027.

Two consultation papers were released during the second half of 2024, with four additional consultation papers made available recently in relatively quick succession. 

The Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Association (OFVGA) has been participating in the consultation process around the redesign. The OFVGA labour committee, supported by our OFVGA staff advisor Stefan Larrass, has been diligently working through each of these papers to understand the possible effects of the government’s proposals and to offer practical perspectives and recommendations that we hope will have positive impact on the development of this new program.