The growing labour shortage in the agriculture sector has some people looking at going through the paperwork to hire foreign workers.

Bill Martin an Agriculture Director with ILC Agriculture – a foreign labour recruiter – talked to Saskatchewan Stock Growers about some of the issues.

He notes if you are looking at hiring foreign labour keep in mind it takes some time depending on the country you are looking at.

"The temporary foreign worker program, which allows them to come on a two-year work permit, can be done a little more quickly than if they're coming as a permanent worker," Martin said. "Fortunately in Saskatchewan, we're lucky we have the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program who is very aware of the problems and the issues facing Saskatchewan Agriculture and they have been very helpful and efficient in moving applicants through as quickly as possible."    

He notes the labour shortage in Agriculture is a real problem adding it’s starting to affect management decisions such as farm size etc.

He also says the majority of workers coming for the grain sector right now are from Eastern Europe, in particular, the Ukraine, adding it’s a little more challenging when it comes to the livestock sector.

"Because the type of range and animal husbandry practices that we have in western Canada, you don't find those in many countries," he said. "The countries where you do find them, there are language barriers, countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and places like that have language barriers to contend with."    

He notes previously we saw a large number of very qualified Mexican workers preferring to work on ranches in Texas but that is starting to change with the Trump factor now playing a role.