News release

Ontario farmers support scholarships for children of Jamaican seasonal workers

Governments, farmers highlight ongoing improvements that strengthen protections, mobility, and support for international farm workers in Canada

For immediate release

Guelph, ON – 9 February 2026 – A new program has been launched by the government of Jamaica to provide scholarships to the children of Jamaicans working on Ontario fruit and vegetable farms through the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP).

The scholarship program, supported by a $10,000 grant from the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association (OFVGA) as part of efforts to help mark the 60th anniversary of SAWP this year, will help 10 Jamaican students pay for costs associated with attending high school, from accommodation and transportation to books and uniforms.

“Education is the one thing that can equalize and it levels the playing field to unlock potential. When you give a child that leg up, it helps not just that child but also their family and their community,” said Jamaica’s Minister of Labour and Social Security, Pearnel Charles Jr., during the launch in Kingston, Jamaica last week.

“The idea for this scholarship came during a conversation in Canada last year and today, we are moving from talking about helping to providing a program that will help – that’s the best reflection of a legacy partnership,” he added.

In 1966, Jamaica became the first country to provide seasonal workers to Canadian fruit and vegetable growers, when 264 Jamaicans arrived in Ontario to help with apple harvest. This launched a strong partnership between Jamaica and Canada, and laid the foundation for SAWP, one of Canada’s longest-running and most respected labour programs.

Today, more than 30,000 workers from Mexico, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, and the Eastern Caribbean Islands come through SAWP to support Ontario’s horticulture sector each year.

One of the strengths of the program is an annual review process that involves the governments of the workers’ home countries, the Canadian government and Canadian farm employers; this has led to consistent and ongoing positive improvements to SAWP.

Shortly after Minister Charles assumed his current role, he came to Canada to visit farms and meet with Jamaican workers and farm employers.

“We came on an observation tour and we saw where there was need for improvement – and since then, we have seen significant improvements. We are always working together to create an optimal environment for workers,” Charles added. “This milestone of celebrating 60 years of SAWP reminds us of the thousands of families who have been transformed through this program.”

Over the last several years, federal and provincial governments, with the support of employers and workers’ home country governments, have introduced a series of new measures to strengthen worker protections and support, including:

• Open work permits for vulnerable workers — giving workers the ability to change employers if they experience unsafe or unfair treatment.
• Expanded mobility — allowing workers to apply for new work permits while already in Canada and, for those in the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP), to transfer between approved employers through their home country liaison offices without a new work permit.
• Stronger protections from reprisals — ensuring workers can raise concerns about working conditions without fear of retaliation.
• Dedicated supports and funding — including a 24/7 federal multilingual support line, and nearly $50 million in federal funding for worker advocacy and support organizations to ensure workers are aware of their rights, and have the tools and resources to exercise them.
• Improved workplace injury coverage — Ontario has updated how the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board compensates injured farm workers to better reflect the realities of seasonal farm work.
• Better housing — employers are making ongoing investments to improve and expand housing for their seasonal workers.

“These positive changes are the result of years of collaboration between employers, governments, and worker support groups,” says Bill George, Chair of the OFVGA Labour Committee. “We are proud to have committed partners like the government of Jamaica as we continue to work together to strengthen this long-running and well-respected program. The workers’ contributions are critical to both the Jamaican economy and Canada’s food supply.”

Through its More than a Migrant Worker initiative, the OFVGA gives a voice to the thousands of seasonal and temporary workers who come to Ontario each year, empowering them to share their stories and highlighting what these jobs mean to them and the essential role they play in feeding Canadians.

The Ontario Fruit & Vegetable Growers’ Association is the voice of Ontario’s fruit and vegetable producers on issues affecting the horticulture sector.

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For more information:
Bill George, Labour Committee Chair, 905-984-0994 or george2vineyards@gmail.com

Stefan Larrass, Senior Policy Advisor, 519-803-9914 or slarrass@ofvga.org

Ben Murray, Communications Advisor, 519-400-1765, bmurray@ofvga.org 

Photo caption: From left: Dione Jennings (Permanent Secretary, Jamaica Ministry of Labour and Social Security); Pearnel Charles Jr. (Minister of Labour and Social Security); Benjamin Murray (Communications Advisor, Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Association); Justine Bailey (Public Relations Manager); and Donovan Williams (Minister of State, Ministry of Labour and Social Security) at the scholarship announcement ceremony.

Additional information about Canada’s temporary foreign worker (TFW) programs for agricultural workers

Why seasonal workers are essential for Canadian fruit and vegetable production

Fruit and vegetable farming is very labour-intensive. That’s because many crops bruise or damage easily, so they need to be planted, harvested and cared for by hand. Fruits and vegetables also have very specific and short planting or harvesting seasons, so often a lot of work has to be done very quickly. This means farms need a large workforce to produce many of the fruit and vegetable crops Canadians know and love.

Farmers prefer to hire Canadian employees first, but there is always a significant gap in terms of the availability of local help and the jobs that need to be filled. In fact, on-farm jobs in agriculture have one of the highest vacancy rates of any industry in Canada, at 5.4%.

That’s why, without international workers coming to Canada through TFW programs, many farms and food businesses would face crippling labour shortages, reducing domestic food production, increasing dependence on imports, and putting food security at risk.

Why eliminating TFW programs won’t solve Canada’s broader issues

Despite their success, Canada’s agricultural TFW programs have faced increasing scrutiny as Canada grapples with housing shortages, strained public services, broader immigration pressures and youth unemployment. It’s easy to blame temporary foreign workers for these challenges, but that oversimplifies complex issues.

Ending these programs would not solve Canada’s housing or infrastructure problems — and it would create new ones. These are agricultural jobs that, year after year, employers struggle to fill with Canadian workers despite offering competitive wages and good working conditions. They are also jobs that can’t simply be filled by students during school breaks, for example, as employers need a reliable workforce throughout the entire growing season, which is much longer than school holidays.

Worker rights and employer responsibilities

Canadian farmers who employ international farm workers under either SAWP or the agriculture stream of the TFW program have the same and, in some cases, higher obligations to their temporary foreign workers as they do for their Canadian employees. This includes government-approved wage rates, access to health care such as OHIP in Ontario, Employment Insurance and the Canada Pension Plan as well as workplace insurance coverage and safety protection.

Farms are also required to provide every worker with a copy of the federal government’s publication outlining workers’ rights and protections to ensure they are aware of their rights.

To ensure these requirements are being followed in practice, farms are subject to frequent federal, provincial, and in many cases, foreign government compliance inspections.

Supports for international farm workers

SAWP’s collaborative structure is one of its key strengths and sets it apart from other TFW programs. If an issue arises on a farm, the employer, worker, and liaison or consular staff from the worker’s home country take a problem-solving approach to find solutions or, if needed, help the worker transition to another farm. This supports positive outcomes for both workers and employers.

Workers with SAWP or TFW program permits have access to a multilingual, 24/7 federal government support line they can use to raise concerns and seek help relating to their current employment.

For SAWP workers, local liaison officers from their home countries are also available to provide support and address complaints related to their employment in Canada. If workers are unable to have their specific employment-related concerns resolved through these channels, an open work permit program is available for vulnerable workers in these situations.

Many of these countries also offer their workers support on the ground at home as part of their participation in the program. In Jamaica, for example, this means a government-managed recruitment process, pre-departure training sessions to prepare workers for being away from home and living and working in Canada, and local social workers who provide support to the workers’ families while they are away, as well as helping workers with paperwork, accessing medical care and more.

Agriculture is the only sector where workers’ home countries offer these types of consular and liaison services to their workers in Canada, and where many governments of those participating home countries are directly involved in recruiting workers to be on the program. Agriculture is also the only sector other than live-in caretakers where the employer provides free or highly subsidized housing to workers.

Housing

Farms are typically located in rural and often remote locations, so many agricultural temporary foreign workers rely on their employer to provide accommodations during their work period. That’s why the agriculture sector has special obligations imposed by the federal government to provide housing to TFW employees in the vast majority of cases. 

Farmers typically house their international employees in homes they’ve built specifically for this purpose on the farm property, especially when the farm is a remote  or rural location.

Employment contracts

Workers apply in their home countries for the opportunity to be part of these programs in Canada and sign legal contracts when accepting employment.

All contracts for agricultural workers on the agriculture stream of Canada’s TFW program are subject to federal government audits and inspections to ensure they follow program regulations and match the job specifications that the employer received government approval for when workers were hired.

Contracts for workers on the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) also reflect decades of collaborative negotiations between Canada and the workers’ home countries, which include Mexico, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, and the Eastern Caribbean Islands.