Alberta remains the only province in Canada to not enforce Occupational Health and Safety legislation on farms and ranches.
The NDP government's Bill 6 — the Enhanced Protection for Farm and Ranch Workers Act — aims to change that but has faced a backlash from thousands of Albertans who are concerned the regulations will spell certain doom for agricultural producers.
“Families understand better than anyone how their farms work and how Bill 6 will impact their lives. They've heard bureaucrats and the minister talk down to them, but all they want is to have their voices heard,” said Opposition Wildrose Leader Brian Jean in a statement.
Fears surrounding Bill 6 largely stem from the notion that costs will be driven up and that family, friends and youth will no longer be allowed to pitch in a helping hand on the fields.
To be fair to the NDP, the government has been listening to what concerned Albertans are saying. The government even plans to amend the bill to dispel certain misconceptions Premier Rachel Notley said arose from miscommunication.
“It has not ever been, nor will it ever be, our intention to introduce a bill that interferes with the ability of family members to do what they have always done on the family farm, or for neighbours to help neighbours or friends to help friends,” said Notley.
Regulating and protecting paid farm workers while at the same time excluding family members, volunteer and educational work, as well as everything else that happens daily on farms, is possible, she said.
Labour Minister Lori Sigurdson, who praised farmers for voicing their concerns across Alberta, said, “We want to make sure that neighbours can still help neighbours, family members can work on farms, and we were going to put that in the regulations, but we're going to make that complete in the bill with the amendments coming forward.”
Farming can be a dangerous and sadly at times even deadly line of work. And while for many people it also represents a way of life, workers should nevertheless be protected for worst-case scenarios.
Some agricultural producers might well be able to care for workers who suffer injuries under their employment, but there should be a fall-back option in cases when that's not possible.
Not all farm producers are opposed to Bill 6.
Mike Kalisvaart, who runs a 12,000-acre operation called Kalco Farms Ltd. near Gibbons that employs up to 15 people at peak season, recently said in a Globe and Mail article that Alberta lags behind other provinces on employee safety and rights on farms.
“I really felt that as we got larger, just by the amount of activity that's happening on our farm, there's a greater chance for accidents and I just wanted to make sure that everyone has some income protection,” he said. “I just felt a whole lot better for the people that work for me if I knew that I could provide that if something did happen.”
Toby Malloy, the Women's Vice President of the National Farmers Union, as well as a registered social worker and therapist who also works with her husband on their farm in Nanton, agrees.
“The skills, dedication, hard work and determination of Albertans who work on farms is invaluable to the social and economic integrity of our communities, our province and our country. Alberta farmers, ranchers and farm workers deserve the safety net of insurance coverage that is already legislated in other provinces,” she wrote in a column sent to the media.
