Canada has announced its plan to give permanent residence to foreign workers in the agri-food sector starting 2020.
The country stated that experienced workers in the sector would be retained under the new permanent residence pathway called Agri-Food Immigration Pilot. The workers have previously been working under Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program which grants them limited-work permits.
The move came about after country recorded $66.2 billion of in products the previous year. The sector further supports 1 in 8 jobs in the country.
The Agri-Food Immigration Pilot is set to benefit foreign employees working as butchers, food processing labourer’s, industrial labourer’s, mushroom and greenhouse crop production labourer’s, supervisors, and specialized livestock workers, and farmworkers and harvesters.
Meat processing and mushroom production in the country has been performing poorly due to lack of employees recently.
“Temporary foreign workers who come to this country and work hard filling permanent jobs should have a fair and reasonable chance to become a Canadian regardless of the job they are filling,” said Rodger Cuzner, Parliamentary Secretary to Canada’s Minister of Employment, Workforce Development, and Labor.
The program targets an about 16,500 new permanent residents in the next three years, and a maximum 0f 2750 applicants to be accepted for processing every year.
Source: https://www.visareporter.com/news-article/canada-announces-permanent-residence-pilot-for-agricultural-food-workers/
