Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter
SEVEN MONTHS after the Ministry of Labour and Social Security opened a new liaison office in the Leamington area of Canada, the office has recruited more than 150 new jobs.
Steven Day, senior liaison officer at the Leamington office, has attributed this growth in jobs to the proximity of the office to the farms. Prior to the opening of the office, employers and farm workers had to travel four hours to Toronto to access any form of liaison services.
"Leamington is considered to be the tomato capital of Canada, they have the largest concentration of greenhouses," said Mr. Day in an interview with The Gleaner.
FARM WORKERS LAUDED
This was while on a tour of the office and farms by a Jamaican delegation, led by Horace Dalley, Minister of Labour and Social Security.
"In 2002, there were 97 workers spread over 14 farms. Now, we have over 468 workers spread over 30 farms and I am anticipating some more growth next year and continuing to do so," he said with optimism.
Mr. Day also pointed out that the growth is also a result of the good work done by the Jamaican farm workers employed to farms in the area.
He said already the liaison service has been promised more jobs for next year.
"We have quite a number of enquiries and these are good enquiries, it is just to follow through and to be here consistently and the presence has to be felt," he said.
AIM TO INCREASE WORKERS
While acknowledging that the competition for jobs in the area was stiff, especially from the Mexicans, Mr. Day said, "What we find is that our workers are much more hardy and they do work much better. They are more apt to go the extra mile sometimes."
Addressing workers at the Diciocco Farm, Mr. Dalley said that his mission was to increase to 7,000 the number of farm workers within the next two years.
He pointed out, however, that for this to be possible, workers would have to continue the good work. "There are many others we need to send and there are many other frontiers that we need to capture," he added.
Last year, some 5,700 workers were sent on the Canadian Seasonal Farmwork Programme. Already, 5,800 workers have so far secured jobs on the programme this year.
The Canadian Seasonal Farmwork Programme began in 1966 with the recruitment of 264 workers from Jamaica. To date, Jamaica has workers in the Provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Manitoba.
