Migrant and Foreign Workers Not Just a U.S. Issue By Will Verboven | Contributing Editor
AN ISSUE THAT HAS become front and center in Canada would be familiar to American agriculture. In Canada, it’s called the Temporary Foreign Work- ers (TFW) program, which can be compared to the U.S.
unaware of the essential role TFWs play in food pro- cessing, which, in many cases, cannot operate efficiently and viably without TFWs. For instance, those ominous cancellation deliberations by federal politicians surely caught the attention of senior managers at the JBS beef plant in Brooks and the Cargill Foods plant in High River. Both of those giant meat processing facilities are longtime users of the TFW program, which helps keep their production lines running at peak capacity. Between them, they employ 5,000 hardworking people. I’m not sure of the exact ratio of foreign workers to Ca- nadian workers in those plants, but I expect it’s significant and has been for decades. The presence of TFW workers at those plants is not because the employers are low-wage exploiters, as the urban media sometimes implies. On the contrary, both plants are covered by union contracts. Surely the union that signed those contracts, the Amer- ican United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), did not agree to exploitative slave wages for the workers. Perhaps the wage rates don’t match the six-figure salaries of some UFCW bosses and staff, but those plants’ wages seem to be an industry standard. Sure, workers deserve higher wages, but I suspect that both those plants are high-cost operations compared to their other facilities in the U.S. If those costs become too high, they could relocate their production to the U.S. That would be a calamity for terminated workers and the whole cattle industry in western Canada. Working in meat processing plants is hard, uncomfort- able and monotonous – it’s work that most people would rather not do, regardless of the wage rate. That leaves meat plant managers with a precarious labor situation almost every morning. A plant manager once told me that every week, he has workers who have just been hired, workers who are moderately reliable and workers who are planning to quit – all on the same shift. TFW workers mitigate that precarious labor availability because, at least, most will stay on the job for the duration of their TFW contract. Many want to stay on under further TFW contracts, so they make the extra effort to be highly productive employees. Their reliability has become core to the operation of big meat plants. One shudders to think what would happen if those workers were suddenly removed from those plants. The argument that companies needing to replace poten- tially lost TFWs (due to program cancellation) would raise wages to attract more Canadian workers is dubious at best – the operators could close plants to cut their losses. Much of this would be familiar to American cattlemen and U.S. processing plants; it’s just the reality of the meat processing business.
non-immigrant foreign workers visa H-2A and H-2B programs. The issue up here is that the TFW program, along with a wide-open student visa program, saw more than 1 million migrants come to Canada in 2024. The Canadian TFW program was created in 1973 and incorporated a pre-existing temporary seasonal agricul- tural worker program. Like any 52-year-old government program, it has undergone numerous changes. Over time, it became increasingly easy to apply the program to various sectors of the economy, like services, processing and manufacturing. As with most government programs, crafty folks found loopholes to exploit the system. That’s aided and abetted up here by a vast industry of immigra- tion agencies filled with consultants, lawyers and con- tractors, many of whom used to work for the government side of the TFW program. In addition, there’s no need to enter Canada illegally; just arrive at the border and declare that you are a refugee or asylum seeker. You will be welcomed and provided with free housing, medical care and other benefits. At the same time, your case will be adjudicated with free legal advice from the aforementioned immigration industry. Con- niving lawyers turn that into a ten-year exercise – all at government expense. Deportation rarely happens except for truly reprehensible criminal cases. I understand the Canadian situation is the exact nightmare scenario the Trump administration is trying to prevent from develop- ing in the U.S., and more power to them. No matter how you arrive in Canada, permission to stay, albeit temporarily, is granted with a work permit or visa. The 1 million newcomers of all kinds that Canada welcomed in 2024 is equivalent to the U.S. accepting 10 million legal immigrants per year. The result in Canada was predictable – a crisis of housing, healthcare and edu- cation overload, along with higher unemployment. That caused the issue to explode, especially with provincial governments responsible for the newcomers. It’s so bad that the new Liberal government (the loathsome former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau finally resigned) wants to curtail the TFW program. So, why does all this matter to the Canadian cattle and beef industries, you may ponder? It’s the old “be careful what you wish for” story. Most Canadians are blissfully
22
www.calfnews.net
CALF News
December 2025 | January 2026
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs