Provincial, federal governments to team for more farm inspections

TORONTO — The Ontario government says it will work with Ottawa to conduct joint inspections of farms and the living conditions of migrant workers.

The province’s labour minister says the two levels of government will begin inspections this week.

Advocates say the cramped quarters migrant workers share on farms have contributed to the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Hundreds of migrant workers across the province have tested positive for COVID-19 and three have died.

Premier Doug Ford says farmers must help the province have their workers tested for COVID-19 — and if farmers do not participate, he may be forced to use other measures to ensure testing is conducted.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal government put strong measures in place to quarantine temporary foreign workers when they arrived in Canada, but it’s obvious those rules were not followed in some cases.

Toronto, Peel to enter Stage 2

Meanwhile, Ford says Toronto and the Peel Region are set to enter Stage 2 of the province’s reopening plan on Wednesday.

That will leave Windsor-Essex as the only region of the province still in Stage 1.

Ford says the trends are improving in Toronto and Peel, but the threat of COVID-19 in Windsor-Essex is still too great.

The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit says that 31 of their 32 new cases today come from the agri-farm sector.

Two migrant workers have died in the region due to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic and the Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit is now reporting that a migrant worker in their area has died amid a farm outbreak there.

More details are available via the Government of Ontario’s website.