Some asymptomatic workers who test positive are allowed to continue doing their jobs
Temporary foreign workers harvest mushrooms at the Highline Mushrooms farm, Canada's largest mushroom grower, in Leamington, Ontario, in this file photo from April 14, 2016.Farmers, workers and health officials are struggling to contain COVID-19 outbreaks in Ontario’s agricultural region amid mass confusion over isolation protocols after one farm was effectively shut down despite a new provincial guideline designed to prevent such work stoppages.
Dr. Ahmed’s counterpart in the hard-hit district of Haldimand-Norfolk, Dr. Shanker Nesathurai, has also expressed concerns with protocols for migrant workers, telling a June 30 board of health meeting that “we can’t have a separate management plan for people that live on farms or live in congregate settings than for anybody else – it’s just not consistent with our culture.”
“My emphasis to the workers is nothing’s going to happen – Ontario’s here to help you, make sure you get better, make sure you get healthy, that’s what we want,” Mr. Ford said, assuring workers that if they can’t work because of COVID-19, they won’t be deported and they will be paid. “We’re Canada. We aren’t some third-world nation that you have to run from the authorities.”
A Nature Fresh worker, who does not live on the farm, told The Globe that the employer generally treats workers well and that he has had access to personal protective equipment. The man, who is not being identified because of concerns about future employment, believes he contracted the virus through shared transport among workers employed at multiple farms. He said he lost a month’s wages to self-isolation because he found it too difficult to apply for government assistance.
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