Statement made on 01 April 2009 by Senator Terry Mercer
Hon. Terry M. Mercer:
The Leader of the Government in the Senate is probably aware and probably read in detail the last several reports of the Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry. One such study was initiated by a colleague in her caucus, Senator Segal, a study on rural poverty, as well as previous studies where we studied the state of agriculture across the country.
One of the underlying things that we were told, as we talked to Canadians in rural Canada and to farmers from all across this country, was the shortage of workers, of people who would come to work on the farm. Indeed, every fall and summer we must import large numbers of migrant workers to come and pick apples, potatoes, peaches, et cetera, and it seems to me that this makes little sense. We have people in our prisons being trained to work on farms. Hopefully when they leave prison, they will find work on a farm as experienced farm hands and perhaps farm managers. It seems to me that the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing.
I hope the Leader of the Government in the Senate would speak to both the minister responsible for Corrections Canada and the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-food to ensure that that minister impresses upon his colleague that this program is helpful to farmers in every province of this country.
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