At the request of provinces or territories, rural employers will be allowed to keep their current number of low-wage temporary foreign workers and will temporarily increase the allowable share of low-wage workers to 15 per cent of their workforce in eligible regions from 10 per cent, Employment and Social Development Canada said in a news release.

The measures could begin as early as April, depending on requests from provinces or territories, and will stay in place until March 31, 2027.

Employers in health care, construction and food processing will remain subject to a 20 per cent cap on low-wage temporary foreign workers. Seasonal sectors, like seafood and tourism, will continue to be exempt from the cap.

The agriculture sector has its own dedicated stream to hire temporary foreign workers — the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP), but may also hire workers through the low-wage stream. Meat packers sometimes hire temporary workers.

Changes welcomed

The Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses welcomed the announcement.

“Any measure that prevents businesses from losing experienced, trained workers is a positive one,” said federation president Dan Kelly in a statement.

The federation is looking for clarity on whether the new measures will allow employers to extend the stay of existing TFWs already in Canada.

Earlier this week the federation put out a statement saying that 1.3 million work permits were set to expire by the end of 2026. Some estimates put more than 300,000 permits set to expire by the end of March, according to the statement.

“The economic fallout could be massive,” the federation said.

In recent years, the Liberal government has made moves to clamp down on use of temporary foreign workers. These included refusing to process applications for low-wage positions in areas with unemployment rates of six per cent or higher; decreasing the cap on the percentage of total workforce an employer can hire to 10 per cent from 20 per cent, with some exemptions; and reduction of maximum work permit duration to one year.

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The federal government announced up to $94.5 million in funding for the 14 groups over five years through the Sectoral Workforce Solutions Program.

The funds are intended to assist 14 organizations develop informational products and employer toolkits to help workers and businesses adapt to current labour market challenges, a federal news release said.

These tools include forecast reports, dashboards on topics like job vacancies by key occupations, and sector-specific growth opportunities.

These are intended to offer job seekers, workers, employers and training providers a detailed view of the challenges and needs within each sector.

The aim is to ultimately help reduce skills shortages, improve job readiness, and support long-term growth across multiple industries, the federal government said.

Other organizations funded represent the energy, construction, trucking, advanced manufacturing, aerospace, tourism, forestry, mining, information and communications technology, the environment and the bio-economy sectors.

These sectors account for 66.2 per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product and employ about 9.9 million workers, the news release said.

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That’s according to speakers at a March 5 webinar hosted by the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association (CASA), which honoured 2026 as the United Nations’ International Year of the Woman Farmer and International Women’s Day, which is celebrated March 8.

The mental strain of shifting roles

Women often play multiple roles on a farm over the course of the day. This can take its toll mentally said Lauren Van Ewyk, CEO and Co-Founder of National Farm Mental Health Alliance.

“Typically, we think of producers as primary, secondary and tertiary producers,” she said, “and women typically fall into all three of those categories in many settings, in agriculture.”

Van Ewyk gave an example from her own experience.

“I’ll be in the barn, lambing out ewes,” she said. “We have a foster daughter who has brain cancer, so I’ll be getting a phone call from the school navigating medical care while I’m making sure that my lambs are getting what they need.”

She cited a study which stated self-reported mental health among rural women declined, “more than urban women, more than urban men, more than rural men,” post-COVID. This could have to do with the many burdens they shoulder on the farm.

She said there is research to suggest women often take on the role of their male partner’s emotional support. Men in Canada are less likely to seek professional help than women.

Different physical strains

The strains of this balancing act can also be physical, not just mental said Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture farm safety co-ordinator Adelaide Amuah.

“Because women are physiologically and anatomically different, have different bodies from males, we stand a higher risk of sprains and strains or musculoskeletal diseases,” she said.

“Taking care of the family, doing the books, using the equipment, machinery, playing so many roles on the farm means that this has higher stress on your muscles, your nerves, even when it comes to rest, you don’t have enough.”

These risks may not be immediately apparent. Effects could only show up later in life.

Personal protective equipment (PPE) is also often made with men in mind, which can create issues when women use it.

“There’s lots of different body shapes, body sizes, body strengths, working on farms now,” said Alanna Coneybeare, vice president of Conlee Farms near Listowel, Ont. “So, having safety equipment that is suitable for everybody to use, I think, is something that is definitely overlooked on a lot of farms.”

Amuah said issue this can lead to women farmers using PPE that is uncomfortable or even dangerous.

“Imagine having a coverall,” she said. “It’s too loose, that means that it might get caught up in a machine, or get caught up in equipment, or if it’s too tight, you are not able to move freely in them.”

The role of mentorship, peer support

Unique challenges can create shared experiences, however, and those shared experiences can lead to mentorships, which the speakers said are crucial for women in agriculture.

“Women, we do have different lived experiences,” said Coneybeare. “We can have really fantastic male mentors who have a plethora of expertise and can really help our career as well, but I think there is a special need for kind of women to help other women as well.”

These conversations can lead to women supporting one another.

“If you gain something, I also gain something, the industry gains something.”

Knowing how and where to seek out these relationships is a key first step, Coneybeare said. This is especially important in agriculture, which does not have the same introductory mechanisms as other industries.

Van Ewyk said women need to be willing to step up, even if it involves confrontation.

“Globally, there’s women all around the world in agriculture who suffer because they’re a woman in ag,” she said. “So ideally, it’s to kind of link arms with one another.”

She encouraged those seeking mentorship to reach out to their local chamber of commerce, many of which have mentorship programs.

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On March 5, federal Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald announced nearly $13.47 million in funding for the 2026-26 Youth Employment and Skills Program.

The program encourages agriculture and food employers to hire people aged 15 to 30 for work experience and skill development opportunities by contributing to their wages and benefits, Agriculture Agri-Food Canada said in a news release.

AAFC will contribute up to 50 per cent of wage and benefit costs, to a maximum of $14,000 per project, the government’s website says. For Indigenous employers or employers who hire youth facing barriers to employment, the federal government will pay a maximum of 80 per cent of elligible costs to a maximum of $19,000 per project.

Youth facing barriers to employment include groups like youth living in remote or northern communities, single parents, recent newcomers, racialized youth and youth living with disabilities, among others.

Applications opened on March 5 and close on May 4.

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The report was full of predictions that came true, as well as a few surprises. This year’s report was the 16th annual.

Food prices were driven higher in 2025 by meat, said Sylvain Charlebois, the lead of Canada’s Food Price Report. Charlebois is the Director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University. He leads Canada’s Food Price Report, but the report was developed by a collective of scholars.

“In fact, we claimed last year that meat would be driving food inflation, and we underestimated how significantly meat prices would go up. That was really the big story in 2025,” he said.

Meat prices to stay high

Unfortunately, the group expects meat prices will remain a huge factor for 2026.

“Beef is an issue, of course, it’s been an issue for a while now, and we don’t see how the situation will normalize itself before at least mid-year 2027,” he said. “Ranchers are leaving the industry. It’s difficult for ranchers across North America.”

The high prices of beef are encouraging people to change to other types of meat, like chicken.

“We’re short on chicken because of higher beef prices. The situation with beef is really a major issue for meat counter economics in general,” he said.

Chicken raised in Canada is under supply management.

“Supply shouldn’t be a problem, but it is a problem right now, because we’re importing more chicken from abroad. But I don’t think that is going to last. I do think the chicken industry will recover eventually. It’s kind of awkward to have supply management and import more chicken from the United States right now,” he said.

Fruit and vegetable inflation down

Vegetables and fruits had their inflation rates go down in 2025 compared to 2024.

“We were expecting increases to be in the positive, but the increases didn’t accelerate as much as we expected,” he said.

The group thought the “Buy Canadian” movement and the entire American boycott would put a lot of pressure on grocers to source products that are cheaper or the same price in America.

“But we were spared, and I think that’s due to the Canadian dollar. I think the Canadian dollar remained a non-issue. That came as a surprise, I would say,” said Charlebois.

Food affordability is a top concern for consumers. A quarter of Canadian households are considered food insecure, and nearly 2.2 million people visited food banks in Canada monthly this year.

Charlebois said there are numerous factors that affect food prices including geopolitics, global weather events, policy enactment, consumer behaviour and changes in retail models. Energy costs, climate change, interest rates, labour costs, the level of consolidation in a sector, and consumer demand, including whether consumers have more money or less money to spend on food.

“These are the things that impact food prices over time. But the bottom line is that not one node of the growth of the food supply chain totally controls food prices,” he said.

Trade wars affect food prices

In 2025, food prices were affected by the trade dispute between Canada and the United States and subsequent policy changes. Consumer-led movements also altered the economic retail landscape, impacting food price inflation.

Charlebois said farmers would say there’s a weak correlation between protein prices, and retail prices, and they’re correct to say so.

“So even though there is a weak correlation between the two, production does have an impact on how food is sourced to supply grocery stores in general,” he said.

When people spend more money at the grocery store, the farmer gets a bigger proportion of the farm bill. With retail, 13 to 15 per cent of the money spent at the grocery store goes back to the farmer compared to food service, where about four per cent to five percent goes back to the farmer from food service.

“Right now, there is a strong movement towards staying retail for consumers, because they’re trying to save as much money as possible, and they’re avoiding restaurants, so that could actually be a positive for farmers in general,” said Charlebois.

Temporary foreign workers

Temporary foreign workers are widely used along the food supply chain. In 2024, Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program brought in over 78,000 workers into the agricultural industry. The Canadian government is revisiting its immigration policy and has announced plans to reduce the share of temporary residents in Canada to less than five per cent of the population by 2027, to encourage more domestic labour and improve youth employment rates. Agriculture is exempt from this cap.

The current population of temporary foreign workers is at seven per cent.

There are concerns that shifts with temporary workers could lead to a major labour shortage in agriculture, disrupting the supply chain and costing businesses already operate on tight margins. The costs would be passed down to the consumer.

Charlebois said the research team is concerned about the temporary foreign worker problem.

“It’s a very important program to support our farmers,” he said. The information about temporary foreign workers was added to Canada’s Food Price Report, to send a clear signal to government that the temporary foreign worker program in agriculture should not be compromised, he said.

Food bill to rise “a lot”

The report also contains predictions for 2026.

“We’re expecting the average family (of four) to see their food bill increased by $1,000, so we’re expecting an increase of four to six per cent, so that’s a lot. I believe it’s the highest we’ve ever seen in 16 years. That’s going to be pushed by two categories; meat and the centre of the store. That’s pantry goods and dry goods. This is not going to help consumers,” he said.

“We think it’s going to push inflation higher,” he said.

The ongoing trade dispute with the United States will continue to affect prices next year. The inflationary aspects of the tariffs and counter-tariffs will continue in 2026 as trade tensions reshape the economic landscape. Canada is strengthening its relationships with other international trading partners to build resilience and competitiveness.

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First World War

The Battle of the Somme was a strategic, costly and hard-fought battleground for both sides. The conflict in this area lasted from July 1 to Nov. 18, 1916 — four and a half months of constant back-and-forth push in a huge attempt to advance for whatever territory could be gained. During one of the battles, 20,000 casualties occurred in one hour. One million soldiers, including more than 24,000 Canadians, died or were wounded.

At the Courcelette Memorial site we stopped to remember those who fought at the Battle of the Somme. At the Thiepval Memorial we witnessed a tribute to over 72,000 unknown soldiers who died and are memorialized there. At the Trail of the Caribou monument at Beaumont-Hamel we took a moment to remember the Newfoundland Regiment that was totally wiped out.

READ MORE: November: A month for remembrances

We visited Cabaret-Rouge cemetery with 7,000 gravesites, from which the body of an unknown soldier was exhumed and returned to Ottawa, where it lies in state in a tomb on Parliament Hill. Then we arrived at Vimy Ridge to stare in wonder at the imposing memorial to Canadian soldiers who fought so valiantly to take the ridge.

We struggled to grasp the enormity of what had happened at Vimy. We walked in reconstructed trenches and were told that 25 metres away were the German trenches. Soldiers could smell each other’s cooking and cigarette smoke and hear chatter and even snoring from the other side. More than 3,600 Canadian soldiers were killed and 7,000 wounded in four days of fighting at Vimy.

In Belgium we visited the Passchendaele battle site and were told of the mud, the injury, more mud, loss of life, screams, gunfire and drowning in even more mud. Passchendaele was successful but fighting there lasted for four years, in a “bite and hold” form of grinding warfare over just eight kilometres of muddy plain. There were more than a million casualties at Passchendaele. While there, we were shown a field where Bev’s grandfather, George McNeil would have been laying communication cable for the trenches. We were just 50 metres away. At Tyne Cot Cemetery are buried almost 12,000 soldiers from 10 different countries, including 966 Canadians, all from the battles of Passchendaele.

At the Menin Gate at Ypres (Ieper) we attended an 8 p.m. memorial service, which has taken place every night (except during the Second World War) since 1928 to remember those who fought to preserve freedom for the local inhabitants.

Second World War

We visited the beaches of Dieppe to witness the site of the disastrous Aug. 19, 1942 raid, an ill-advised campaign sacrificing 60 per cent of the Canadian soldiers who fought there. From German pillboxes huge enemy guns could swivel to shoot down on the beach or out to sea to maim and destroy incoming landing craft that carried the brave soldiers and equipment. All the while aircraft from both sides created a deafening roar as they battled above the beaches.

Operation Overlord was the name of the D-Day landing on the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944. General Dwight Eisenhower commanded five areas of attack along the beaches, code-named Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. More than 156,000 soldiers landed despite high winds and rough seas, which made the landings treacherous. Earlier we had visited the site called Pegasus Bridge where three gliders carrying soldiers and small tanks had flown and landed, in the darkness of night, within 50 metres of a fortified bridge and silently overwhelmed German guards. This strategic manoeuvre helped Canadian and British forces who landed at Normandy to cross this important canal to push back German forces.

In the Netherlands we visited Abbaye d’Ardenne where Canadian POWs were executed by order of German Divisional Commander Colonel Kurt Meyer. My cousin, Lance Corporal Ron Gompf, was later placed in charge of guarding POW Meyer and wanted to disarm him, but wasn’t allowed to disarm a POW who was of a higher rank.

We stopped at several small towns where our soldiers had valiantly fought. In each town the townsfolk never forgot the gallantry displayed by the Canadians and monuments were erected to honour the Canadian soldiers who lost their lives there.

In Apeldoorn we saw the home of Princess Margriet, who was born in Ottawa in 1943 in the Ottawa Civic Hospital. Her maternity ward and two floors of the hospital had been declared sovereign Netherlands territory so she could be born as a Dutch citizen.

On April 12, 1945 Canadian soldiers liberated the village of Westerbork. Camp Westerbork had been a camp for Jews from all over the Netherlands to wait their turn to be sent in cattle cars to Auschwitz and Sobibor in occupied Poland. Starting in January 1942, close to 100,000 Jews of all ages passed through Westerbork; upon liberation there were only 1,000 left in the camp. Many had been deported just as Canadian soldiers advanced toward the camp. We silently walked around the shell of the camp, which is a stark reminder of its existence.

At the Groesbeek Canadian War cemetery we attended a solemn ceremony complete with a marching band of drums and bagpipes and featuring a number of Canadian veterans of the war. Some were in wheelchairs and a 102-year-old veteran made an impassioned presentation. While in Groesbeek we also toured the Vrijheidsmuseum (Freedom Museum), which included a stark graphic display of the number of people, civilians and soldiers killed in the war, estimated at a frightening 70 to 85 million.

With a few thousand other folks, we attended the Memorial Presentation of Remembrance that takes place every year at Holten Canadian War Cemetery and in 2025 marked the 80th year since Canadian soldiers liberated the Netherlands from Nazi tyranny. Again, Canadian veterans were present to speak and lay wreaths. Princess Margriet was present, Governor General Mary Simon spoke, and local schoolchildren placed two roses at each tombstone. Canadian pipe and drum bands played and the poem “In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae was read. Taps and The Last Post created an eerily silent audience. It was certainly an emotional experience that one will never forget.

The most unforgettable emotions at all the cemeteries we visited, and the most poignant memories, were the ages engraved on the tombstones. A name followed by an age — 18, 19, 20, 21, 22. These were just kids, who lived and died fighting for the freedom we enjoy today. They were somewhat innocent but brave beyond their years. They had answered the call and they died for our freedom. And one couldn’t help but hear their whispers: “Please remember us.”

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Reflection, curiosity and continuing education are learned and intentional parts of how we run our farm in southwestern Manitoba. Reflective questions help us make decisions for what we might need to change or do differently in future: “What are the things we need to learn about and integrate to make our business and family dynamic and farm better?”

As entrepreneurs, and producers, we often focus heavily on production, marketing and finance. These are good things, and certainly play a role in some of the questions asked above. One area we have been exploring more in our farm and business — and I often encourage other entrepreneurs to invest more in via my facilitation work — is human resources training. Learning the people side of things is particularly helpful if you have employees or work multi-generationally. It can also help with spousal and sibling partnerships.

Here are some key areas that fall under HR management, where skills development can be as critical for your operation as your production and marketing plans:

Staff training and retention

We need people to work on our farms. We require the skills and abilities to provide training and upskilling opportunities for ourselves and also for staff and the next generation. There is a huge incentive to retain key talent and skilled labour, to ensure continuity and capture intergenerational knowledge. Staff training and retention efforts can have significant impact on farm and ranch culture too. Providing learning and training opportunities, seeking feedback or simply posting a sign that says “We care” (while acting accordingly) can make a huge difference. Compensation can also be an issue in staff retention, so company culture that improves profitability and reduces waste (in the form of time and material waste) and focuses on liveable wages can make a big difference.

Conflict resolution and mediation

If you are looking for skill building that can change your workplace for the better — and help you raise your kids and get along with your spouse — you can start here. Conflict is everywhere, and conflict is not bad. You can be in a good conflict. Years ago, when I started taking conflict resolution and mediation training, my ‘aha’ moment was when I realized conflict skills are real and unskilled or destructive conflict prevents people from more creative forms of conflict and problem-solving. A major issue in farm transitions, family business and workplaces is unspoken and unresolved conflict.

These skills can also help when having difficult conservations around implementing new policies and best practices or exploring complex or new governance and role clarity on the farm. Many institutions and organizations provide in-person and online learning. I can sit at my farm kitchen table in Manitoba and take a course from the Justice Institute of B.C. in Vancouver — or I have the option of an in-person course at Mediation Services in Winnipeg.

Cultural and organizational alignment

What is the culture of your farm? What are your values? Knowing your culture and discussing your values can help bring you into organizational and familial alignment. Values are not prescribed, but are discussed and embraced. You have individual values and organization values. Do you value honesty, co-operation, independence, security — or is it courage, accountability, compassion and creativity? There are many more and there is no wrong answer. What’s important is to ensure alignment between family values and business goals.

What happens when different family members or family units in a business value different things? Perhaps exploring core values is more central and training can give you the skills to do and lead that effectively. Having a clear set of core values can help with leadership integration and next-generation transition as well as a founder’s exit.

Policy and governance

One recommendation for young farmers, as you step into management and leadership on your own farms, is to seek out opportunities to sit on a volunteer board and learn there about governance and policy. So often on farms, rules are not written but held in stories, histories and memory. It can be really helpful to explore, set up and practice policies that clarify expectations around matters such as compensation, perks or workplace accountability, and to have a more professional standard in a family-run environment where people might make assumptions about what others are supposed to be doing. Having a space and some skill to explore policy and governance does not mean you need to take the fun out of farming, but it can add clarity around roles, responsibilities, performance, asset transfer and transition, among other things. You might also have policies around safety and equipment use, social media, sourcing and family member engagement.

Family and non-family dynamics

It is important to appreciate and navigate the complexity of relationships and family histories within family businesses. This can be a difficult and ongoing challenge that requires skill building and personal and team work. Appreciating the unique dynamics between family members and employees can be key to the sustainability and future success of the farm or ranch.

If you have non-family employees who play significant roles in the current and future success of your business, it is important to have objective criteria for fair treatment of non-family employees and family in the business throughout a transition. When leadership changes, it’s important to communicate clearly with employees and for members of the leadership team to have training to support the continuity of employee satisfaction as well as their own confidence in leading a team, whether it be family members or non-family employees.

Investing in leadership training can build additional trust among team members and also reduce destructive conflict cycles.

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The 2025 budget will be the Carney government’s first.

Change in approach expected

“I think the business community would be shocked if there wasn’t a dramatic departure and approach,” said CropLife Canada CEO Pierre Petelle said.

“Everything we’ve heard for the past year signaled a pretty significant departure from the previous government.”

The Trudeau government’s 2024 budget drew mixed reactions from the agriculture community with some groups praising its action on tax and climate challenges and others saying it fell short of farmers’ concerns. The 2024 fall economic statement made few mentions of agriculture.

Tyler McCann, managing director of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute (CAPI), said he also sees a difference in the how the current government approaches agriculture.

“I think if you hear what (Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Heath) McDonald says, it is very clearly a growth-oriented approach,” McCann said. “He is very much concerned about the economics of the sector. He’s very much concerned about trade and economic viability. He talks about innovation. He talks about regulatory reform.”

McCann said he sees two main expectations for the budget within the sector: supports for those impacted by Canada’s various ongoing trade disputes and a set of cuts and sacrifices.

“If you look across what (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada) spends its money on, it’s pretty easy. There’s only so many buckets that can get cut from.”

McCann said he expected cuts to environmental programming and staffing.

He added the cost-cutting may not be as aggressive as initially expected, and next year will likely see a budget with more drastic cuts. This is largely due to the trade uncertainties Canada is still facing.

Non-financial asks

Improved regulatory approval timelines for government bodies like the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) were among CropLife’s priorities according to an Oct. 30 statement.

“We saw the Liberal platform mentioning the mandates of CFIA and PMRA … should be broadened to include economic considerations,” Petelle said. “We’re asking for that to actually happen.”

“The good thing about our asks (is) they’re not financial asks,” he added. “With the austerity coming and the focus on our deficit, we feel that this is the perfect time to take some of these requests seriously.”

McCann said he saw this as a possibility.

“There’s a lot of opportunity for the government to do non-cost measures, or to take money that they’re already spending and spend it differently in ways,” he said.

“I think that there’s broad agreement, even within government, that their first round of work on regulatory reform was very underwhelming and left a lot of work on the table, and certainly the budget would be a good place to do it.”

What agriculture needs in the budget, McCann said, is a sign the government will follow through in its mandates and act on regulatory reform.

In the Oct. 30 release, CropLife also called for the government to “put food security and affordability at the forefront,” and “Institute cutting-edge regulatory practices,” by “reviews and best regulatory practices from trusted, risk-based jurisdiction.”

Agriculture as a national priority

In June, over 25 agricultural organizations, including the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, Grain Growers of Canada, the Canadian Cattle Association and the Canadian Meat Council, sent a letter to Carney welcoming the government’s focus on strengthening the economy while also requesting strategic investment in the sector. It called for agriculture to be made a national priority.

Petelle said it was significant for so many commodity groups, from supply managed sectors to grain growers, to align on a message.

“These groups don’t always align on policy positions, but what they do align on is a call to action,” he said. “So, I think that that speaks volumes.”

Trade also continued to be a priority. The Canadian Federation of Agriculture called on the government to support trade efforts like the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), to protect farm inputs like fertilizer from countermeasures in response to U.S. tariffs, and to ensure agriculture’s place in the new Trade Diversification Corridor Fund.

The federation also asked the government to support pathways to permanent residency for temporary foreign workers, to modernize the Canadian Grain Act and to mandate “Agricultural Impact Assessments (AIAs) for all federal infrastructure projects, including defence-related projects, and federal land claim decisions that may affect the quality or availability of agricultural land in Canada.”

The Canadian Meat Council asked the government to reduce regulatory burdens by modernizing Canada’s enhanced feed ban, by extending Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) applicability to 2 years and to invest in African Swine Fever (ASF) preparedness and recovery.

The Canadian Organic Growers released an action plan Oct. 29, ahead of the budget’s release, which called on the government to adopt a plan to “unlock the sector’s full potential.” Its main action points included accelerating growth and innovation in organic production, growing markets and demand and strengthening policy, regulatory and data infrastructure.

In an Oct. 31 news release, the Conservative Party of Canada called on the government to bring back the Prairie interswitching pilot in the budget. This would include making it permanent and extending it to regions not included in the original program, which it said would provide farmers with the fair rail access they need.

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In a note pinned to the top of the program’s official website, the CGC noted that the strike was causing mail delays with the program.

Farmers were urged to, if possible, deliver their samples directly to the CGC, either at their head office in downtown Winnipeg, another CGC office or service centre, or another approved drop off site.

Service centres are located in British Columbia (Prince Rupert), Alberta (Calgary); Saskatchewan (Saskatoon and Weyburn), Manitoba (Churchill), Ontario (Thunder Bay and Hamilton) and Québec (Baie-Comeau and Québec City). Western and eastern regional offices can be found in Vancouver and Montréal, respectively. A full list, phone numbers and addresses can be found on the CGC’s webpage through the Government of Canada website.

“Please contact the office or service centre you’re visiting to confirm they have a sample drop off box available,” the website advises.

Besides CGC offices, drop off sites have been arranged at the following locations:

• BroadGrain Commodities Inc. – Dafoe, Sask.
• Bunge – Lethbridge County, Alta.
• All Paterson Grain elevators in Alberta, Saskatchewan or Manitoba
• Sakai Spice – Lethbridge, Alta.

Farmers may also choose to keep their sample until the strike ends, the CGC said.

On Oct. 10, Canada Post said that mail service would resume after the Thanksgiving long weekend, as they moved to rotating, rather than nationwide, strikes.

The last day to mail samples is Nov. 30, 2025. Dec. 31, 2025 is the last day for any samples to be included in this year’s Harvest Sample Program.

Testing for quality

The cross-country Harvest Sample Program is a voluntary initiative for testing a host of quality factors across a range of crops.

For each sample, inspectors provide unofficial grade and quality results at no charge, including:

• Falling number for wheat and rye,
• Vomitoxin (deoxynivalenol or DON) levels for wheat, corn, barley and oats,
• Dockage assessment on canola and mustard seed,
• Protein content on barley, beans, chickpeas, lentils, oats, peas and wheat,
• Oil, protein and chlorophyll content for canola,
• Oil and protein content and iodine value for flaxseed, and
• Oil and protein for mustard seed and soybeans.

A CGC inspection supervisor said producer participants appear to be taking the inconvenience in stride.

“There hasn’t been a lot of complaints or anything. I haven’t heard one complaint,” said Judy Elias with the Weyburn, Sask., service centre.

“We’re all used to strikes, so there’s just new ways to do old business.”

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From April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025, Employment and Social Development Canada inspected 1,435 employers for compliance, the agency said in an Oct. 6 news release. Ten per cent were found to be non-compliant.

In the same period, nearly $4.9 million in penalties were levied, up from about $2.1 million the previous year.

Agriculture, construction employers among those punished

Examples of non-compliance included an agricultural employer who was fined $212,000 and was banned from the TFW program for two years for “failing to provide proper working conditions” and not providing required documents to inspectors.

A construction employer was banned from the program for five years and fined $161,000 for failing to provide proper wages and working conditions, and for lack of compliance with federal and provincial labour laws.

A fish and seafood employer received a penalty of $1 million and a 10-year ban for failing to provide proper wages and working conditions, and for non-compliance with labour laws.

“To date, this is the biggest penalty ever issued by the Department,” the news release said.

“It is clear that improvements to the TFW Program are needed. This starts with a focused approach that targets specific strategic sectors and needs in specific regions,” it added.

TFW program to be trimmed

This echoed comments Prime Minister Mark Carney made to Liberal caucus members in September.

At the Sept. 10 event, Carney said his government aims to reduce the total number of temporary foreign workers and international students to less than five per cent of Canada’s population by the end of 2027, CBC reported.

In early September, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said the TFW program should be scrapped and a standalone agriculture program should be created. Poilievre cited Canadian unemployment as the main reason for the plan.

A bit more than 78,000 temporary foreign workers were employed in Canadian agricultural industries in 2024, Statistics Canada data shows.

The current Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) allows primary agriculture employers to bring in seasonal workers from Mexico and the Caribbean. However, farmers and food producers may also hire workers through the TFW Program.

Program under scrutiny

The program has also faced a barrage of scrutiny in recent years. A February report from Amnesty International called the system “inherently exploitative and discriminatory.” It called for measures like greater flexibility of work permits, removal of permanent residency criteria that it said discriminates against low-skill workers, and for improved worker access to healthcare and adequate housing.

The Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association pointed to “decades of continuous improvements” that allowed for more mobility options within SAWP. It said that program sets the gold standard for TFW programs.

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