There is pride in the voice of Maricela Ramirez Zamarripa as she tours visitors around her new home on the Niagara Region tree fruit and flower farm where she works. The Mexican woman is a seasonal agricultural worker and for the last eight years, she’s been working at Meyers Fruit Farms, a farm business that has recently built five new housing units to accommodate up to 40 of their international employees.
“Everybody is happy here, this is a very good group of ladies (who live) here,” she says, adding that her job in Canada is helping her family back home in Mexico. “This is a very big opportunity for my family; this is for the bambinos, for their school, for everything.”
The housing was designed and built with worker comfort and privacy in mind, and all units feature heated floors, laundry facilities, stainless steel kitchen cupboards, countertops and appliances, and bright and airy common living spaces. Each 1,904 square foot home was built by Smart Homes Niagara to house up to eight workers in double bedrooms.
This example illustrates an ongoing and growing trend among fruit and vegetable growers in Ontario: the investment in housing for their international workers. Currently, there are minimum standards in the province on what the housing needs to include; and although housing requirements currently vary from province to province, the federal government intends to release new common housing rules in the near future that would apply nation-wide.
In Ontario, housing for workers with permits under the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) or the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program must follow fire and building codes and local public health standards. This includes passing inspections to verify water quality, air ventilation, adequate sanitation facilities and overall living space, as well as verifying that the housing is free of pests and can maintain a minimum temperature of 20C.
Beyond meeting the outlined requirements, these investments being made by growers also reflect a mindset of providing worker accommodations with modern amenities, as seen in the new units at Meyers Fruit Farms. Such initiatives are becoming increasingly common as growers work to ensure safe, comfortable living conditions for their workforce.
“The COVID-19 pandemic really put a new focus on worker housing and even though we’re still waiting for the development of the new national housing standard, many growers have proactively made significant investments into housing upgrades in the last several years to ensure workers have safe, comfortable living spaces,” says Stefan Larrass, senior policy advisor with the Ontario Fruit & Vegetable Growers’ Association (OFVGA).
These investments aren’t cheap, however, and with the rising costs associated with operating a farm, it’s becoming more difficult for growers to set aside the significant amount of money needed to build housing for seasonal workers. Growers unable to finance these construction projects find themselves having to use residential housing in nearby communities to lodge their workers, at least in the short to medium term.
Collaborative efforts between government and growers are essential to mitigate the financial burden associated with constructing or upgrading housing facilities for workers, as well to address some of the significant administrative and regulatory barriers that hold up construction projects at the local level. Such partnerships can streamline costs and ensure that workers have exceptional living conditions without hurting growers financially, while also minimizing pressure on the domestic housing supply.
Mike Chromczak, an asparagus and watermelon grower from Tillsonburg, has recently completed new modular housing units for his team of seasonal agricultural workers from Jamaica. Each four-bedroom unit houses six workers who share two full bathrooms, two fridges, laundry facilities, and a spacious kitchen and common living area.
Chromczak has also equipped each home with a high efficiency gas furnace and air conditioning, satellite TV, high-speed internet and even an HRV air exchanger to keep the air clean.
“With this (housing) expansion here on our farm, we’ve also been able to put half of our workers into their own bedrooms – and we’re proud to provide them with all the amenities of a home that anyone else would expect to enjoy,” says Chromczak.
For more information on migrant worker housing and to see workers tell their stories in their own words visit morethanamigrantworker.ca.
