Family farms got a significant concession from the provincial government in their battle against proposed farm worker legislation, but there are still too many unanswered questions.
Amendments to the Bill 6 unveiled on Monday specify Occupational, Health and Safety and WCB will only take effect on farms with paid workers. Family farms, friends and neighbours who lend a hand are exempt. It’s a move in the right direction and addresses some of the main concerns farmers have had.
There are still a lot of unanswered questions about how the bill will affect farms and the Province needs to do more to answer them before approving Bill 6.
Many of those very questions were asked at during a public meeting, turned protest in Okotoks last week. At one point, Alberta’s agriculture and labour ministers were asked whether existing farm equipment would be grandfathered under OHS rules. When the ministers looked back to the technical experts behind them for an answer, one shrugged his shoulders. At another point, a rancher asked how the bill would deal with family farms that are set up as a corporation with family members on the payroll. Others wanted to know how hours, holidays and days off would work during busy times of year like harvest or calving season.
These questions matter to farmers, but to this point there aren’t many answers.
Farmers and ranchers, like any other business owners, deserve to know how they will be affected by changes to the regulatory environment they work under.
Premier Rachel Notley maintains the bill is about safety and will be passed this fall. She is right when she says workers on Alberta farms deserve the same protections as workers in any other sector across the province. They deserve the right to refuse dangerous work and they, and their families, should be covered in the event anything goes horribly wrong.
Bill 6 will accomplish this goal, but the provincial government is simply leaving too many details undetermined. It’s not enough to approve the bill and fill in the blanks later. It’s an injustice to both farmers and the workers the bill is intending to protect.
It’s for this reason, that the Province needs to stop, slow down and give farmers the answers they deserve.
