The Government of Canada has acknowledged the difficulties of housing employees on location, particularly for farm owners participating in the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) and other Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program streams. As part of their agreement, the farmer has to find or provide accommodation that costs less than 30 percent of their employee’s wages.
Hard thing to do when the average apartment in Ontario costs $2,332 per month.
So many farmers have decided to retrofit some of their existing buildings into shared accommodations or have built some from scratch. They’ve created bunkhouses, dorms or family-style multi-bedroom houses. But not everybody is able, ready or willing to build a whole new building so their employees have a place to sleep. It can be incredibly costly, after all.
With this in mind, the government did release a guide on modular or temporary housing. Though still costly, it isn’t nearly as expensive as erecting a brick-and-mortar building from scratch.
If your community is very close-knit, you can also ask neighbours, family and friends to see if they are willing to house employees and offer them rent. Making a deal with local landlords can also be beneficial, particularly if you can guarantee many tenants over the summer months when the market often cools down as students return home.
But that does leave open the issue of transportation.
When you take on the responsibility to hire a TFW, you agree to provide transportation to and from work and necessities such as grocery store stops and medical appointments. Unless you want to be at your employee’s beck and call, providing them with transportation solutions is best.
If you live on a farm near a bus line, you must provide your TFW employees with a bus card. However, most rural areas do not have bus lines.
If one of your employees has a valid driver’s licence, renting or purchasing a vehicle is possible and entrusting them to drive their colleagues around. Perhaps a bump in salary as an incentive would be a perfect motivator. If they live on the grounds, providing bicycles, scooters and ATVs can also be a good solution to get to and from work.
Crowdsourcing vehicles is also an alternative if you have friends, family or neighbours in a similar situation. Perhaps create a carpool or purchase a car, truck, bus or van to share.
The government is looking into more alternatives but is still only in the first stages. As time moves on, there will be more transportation solutions.
