Some 194 Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als re­turned to sev­er­al farms in On­tario and Al­ber­ta, Cana­da, to pur­sue sea­son­al agri­cul­tur­al work, be­tween Jan­u­ary and March 2022, the Min­istry of Labour has con­firmed.

An of­fi­cial state­ment from the Min­istry notes that these work­ers were able to ac­cess op­por­tu­ni­ties in the Farm Pro­gramme, de­spite the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, which be­gan in in T&T in March 2020.

Ac­cord­ing to the Min­istry, the Farm Pro­gramme, like many gov­ern­ment pro­grammes, was ad­verse­ly af­fect­ed by the pan­dem­ic.

Min­is­ter of Labour, Stephen Mc Clashie MP, has laud­ed the Farm Pro­gramme, and re­it­er­at­ed the Labour Min­istry’s com­mit­ment—through its Farm Pro­gramme Unit—to pro­vide job op­por­tu­ni­ties for cit­i­zens de­sirous of par­tic­i­pat­ing in the Sea­son­al Work Pro­gramme in Cana­da, with a view to im­prov­ing the qual­i­ty of their lives.

“The Min­istry is very pleased to be able to con­tin­ue fa­cil­i­tat­ing the process of send­ing sea­son­al work­ers to Cana­da,” he said.  “It is part of our pro­gramme of ex­pan­sion, and we are look­ing to sig­nif­i­cant­ly in­crease the num­ber of Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als who can ac­cess the Farm Pro­gramme.

He added: “The [Min­istry] is work­ing hand in hand with the Cana­di­an agen­cies in mak­ing this a re­al­i­ty. With­in a few months, you will see even more peo­ple ac­cess­ing this pro­gramme and it is our in­ten­tion to ex­pand sig­nif­i­cant­ly over the next two to three years.”

Chief Man­pow­er Of­fi­cer of the Man­pow­er Di­vi­sion in the Min­istry of Labour, Er­ic Po­li­ah, not­ed the long his­to­ry of T&T farm­work­ers in Cana­da.

“Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als have been trav­el­ling to take up em­ploy­ment via the Com­mon­wealth Caribbean Sea­son­al Agri­cul­tur­al Work­ers’ Pro­gramme (CC­SAWP) more com­mon­ly known as the Farm Pro­gramme since 1967,” Po­li­ah ob­served.

The Chief Man­pow­er Of­fi­cer said over the years, these em­ploy­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties have made it pos­si­ble for Trin­bag­o­ni­ans to sup­port them­selves and their fam­i­lies, ed­u­cate their chil­dren and build their homes.

“The Farm Pro­gramme con­tin­ues to be a mu­tu­al­ly ben­e­fi­cial part­ner­ship be­tween the Gov­ern­ments of Trinidad and To­ba­go and Cana­da and de­spite the chal­lenges of the pan­dem­ic, the Min­istry of Labour ‘s Farm Pro­gramme Unit re­mains com­mit­ted to prepar­ing na­tion­als and fa­cil­i­tat­ing their con­tin­u­ous em­ploy­ment,” he added.

One of the sea­son­al work­ers, Steven Williams, who as­sumed bee­keep­ing du­ties on Yarem­cio Hon­ey Farm in Al­ber­ta for the fourth con­sec­u­tive time since his en­rol­ment in 2019, shared his ex­pe­ri­ence in the pro­gramme.

“There are ups and downs, and leav­ing your fam­i­ly is the hard­est part,” he ad­mit­ted, “but I en­joy what I do a lot.”

Williams said through the Farm Pro­gramme, he has been ex­posed to pos­si­bil­i­ties he nev­er ex­pect­ed such as pur­su­ing a ca­reer in bee­keep­ing—a field in which he had no pri­or knowl­edge—and he as­pires to ap­ply his skills in Trinidad and To­ba­go, some­day.

His ad­vice for those in­ter­est­ed in en­rolling in the Farm Pro­gramme is to re­mem­ber: “It’s se­ri­ous com­mit­ment and hard work.”

An­oth­er farm work­er, Frances Ganess, was placed on Schuyler’s Farm to en­gage in ap­ple pick­ing.  She has been em­ployed sea­son­al­ly over the last eight years and says she loves the Pro­gramme as it en­ables her to sup­port her ail­ing daugh­ter and grand­chil­dren, as well as pro­vides fund­ing for the small busi­ness she opened for her daugh­ter.

“It is up to you to make it work. I’m al­ways on time and I do my work, and due to that the farmer re­quest­ed for me to re­turn,” Ganess not­ed when asked about her work ex­pe­ri­ence.

She com­mend­ed the Farm Pro­gramme Unit, stat­ing that the staff are very sup­port­ive of work­ers, in­form­ing them of what to ex­pect and what not to do.

In her own words, she ad­vised: “Be ear­ly and stay out of trou­ble.”

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For fur­ther in­for­ma­tion on the Farm Pro­gramme, in­ter­est­ed per­sons can call or vis­it:

Farm Pro­gramme Unit, Duke Place, Lev­el 1, 50-54 Duke Street, Port of Spain.

Tele­phone: +1 (868) 299-0300 / Op­tion 2

Email: mol.farm­pro­gramme@gov.tt