Reading Time: < 1 minute In this week’s episode of Awkward Ag, Patti Durand answers a letter signed by “Trying to Find Balance” who asks Patti what they can say to other farm team members who make them feel guilty about trying to find a work-life balance. Do you need some advice on how to have an awkward conversation with […] Read more
VIDEO: Trying to find work-life balance on the farm
Farmworkers in the US cultivate their own heat safety standards
Fair Food Program seeks to circumvent slow regulatory process
Reading Time: 4 minutes While regulations to protect agricultural workers from the heat have been held up by political wrangling, Gonzalo and her colleagues have spearheaded an alternate strategy. They seek to sidestep the slow and increasingly politicized government machinery and instead appeal directly to consumers and large brands.
Feds plan to ease Underused Housing Tax reporting load
New exemption also proposed for employee housing outside cities
Reading Time: 3 minutes Federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s latest Fall Economic Statement offers to take some of the reporting burden off certain farmers and other Canadians when filing for exemptions from the national Underused Housing Tax (UHT). The federal finance department on Nov. 16 posted its legislative and regulatory proposals for changes to the UHT online and has […] Read more
Survey to look at farm stress from Alberta angle
Study to explore farmers' levels of resilience against stress
Reading Time: < 1 minute Researchers from the University of Alberta and AgKnow, the province’s farmer mental health network, are looking to build up Alberta-specific data on farming stress, mental health and well-being, and the ways in which farmers cope. They study team is “looking for farmers, ranchers, or anyone who works or lives on a farm” to participate, researchers […] Read more
Ontario police charge seven with trafficking, exploiting migrants
Workers provided for farms and other sites, police say
Reading Time: 2 minutes Toronto | Reuters — Ontario’s York Regional Police have charged seven people with trafficking and exploiting 64 Mexican migrants, saying the accused were part of an international labour trafficking ring operating in the Toronto region. Police in Ontario said on Friday they had obtained information in November that migrant men and women were being exploited […] Read more
Suspect in California farm worker shootings appears in court
Early evidence suggests workplace grievance, authorities say
Reading Time: 3 minutes Redwood City, Calif. | Reuters — A California farm worker accused of shooting seven people to death near San Francisco, some of them his co-workers, made his first court appearance on Wednesday after he was charged with murder in the state’s second deadly gun rampage in recent days. Chunli Zhao, 66, the lone suspect in […] Read more
Keeping the ‘busy’ in ‘business’
The Mathesons continue to diversify on a farm modelled for success
Reading Time: 5 minutes All of the clichés about sharing workloads — “Many hands make for light work” or “Two heads are better than one,” fall by the wayside when chatting with Ian and Scott Matheson. Since they took over farming from their father, they’ve increased their respective duties on the family operation near Lakeside in the northwest corner […] Read more
Keeping workers on the farm
Scientific HR really can help ensure your farm business has the people and skills it needs
Reading Time: 8 minutes There are multiple moving parts to any busy farm, and there have to be just as many to a sound HR plan too. You can pretty quickly run out of fingers if you try to count them. There’s recruitment, retention, training, evaluation … the list goes on and on. But that doesn’t mean HR has […] Read more
Audit finds Canada failing migrant farmworkers on COVID-19, housing inspections
Reading Time: 2 minutes Toronto | Reuters — As the COVID-19 pandemic raged, federal government inspectors frequently deemed the employers of migrant workers compliant with health and safety rules despite a lack of evidence, according to an Auditor General report released Thursday. While Canadian provinces and territories set housing standards, the federal government is responsible for ensuring tens of […] Read more
Quebec to reduce onus for farm workers seeking workers’ comp for Parkinson’s
Amended rule would grant 'presumption' for pesticide exposure
Reading Time: 2 minutes Some Quebec farmers and farm workers with Parkinson’s disease may soon have an easier path to seek workers’ compensation — if they can show at least a certain amount of exposure to pesticides. Provincial Labour Minister Jean Boulet on Tuesday tabled an amendment to bill 59, draft legislation that includes updates to Quebec’s workplace health […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
