In August, the Globe and Mail’s reporter Jason Kirby returned to his roots in Norfolk County to pick peppers alongside temporary foreign workers, admitting he was sweating to keep up. He also interviewed their employers at Sandy Shore Farm, Apple Hill Lavender Farm and Cebulak Family Farms. The result of his labour is a 10-page insightful look at the entire eco-system of programs and support services for bringing fruits and vegetables to the table. 

This feature is well-timed against the backdrop of calls for the temporary foreign worker program to be scrapped. It quotes not only Jamaican and Mexican workers, but employers, the Jamaica Liaison Service, support services and restaurants in the town of Simcoe. Don’t miss the embedded videos. 

Highlights of the piece:

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• -  80,000 foreign workers keep food on the plates of Canadians
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• -  $380M were sent in remittances to Jamaica in 2024 according to the Bank of Jamaica – that’s 1.5 per cent of the country’s GDP
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• -  “Mucho trabajo, mucho dinero” – “A lot of work, a lot of money” says José Diego Canul Matu
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• -  “When you look at the minimum wage and you hear people say ‘cheap labour’, they don’t realize at the end of the day that offshore is not our cheapest labour, it’s our most reliable labour,” says Nathan Cebulak

For the entire article, link here: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/files/editorial/Business/ROBmag/ROBMagOct2025.pdf

Source:  Staff