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The Temporary Foreign Worker Quarantine Program in B.C. will end tomorrow (March 31).
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Quarantine program for seasonal agricultural workers to end
Published 10:34 PDT, Wed March 30, 2022
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B.C.’s quarantine program for seasonal agricultural temporary foreign workers will be ending after two years.
With the easing of federal travel restrictions and 97 per cent of incoming workers being fully vaccinated against COVID-19, B.C.'s Temporary Foreign Worker Quarantine Program will end tomorrow (March 31). Arriving workers will travel directly to their farms and it will be the employer's responsibility to ensure federal quarantine requirements are met for those who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.
The provincially funded quarantine program represents a $47-million investment to help protect B.C.'s food security during the pandemic by ensuring farms had access to the labour they needed and local food continued to be grown and harvested.
The quarantine program is seen as a best practice by other jurisdictions and included funding for accommodations, culturally appropriate meals, laundry, volunteer-led wellness walks, interpretation and translation services, health screening, and other necessary supports.
More than 15,000 workers went through the program with 233 workers diagnosed with COVID-19 while in quarantine. This shows the important role the program played in preventing workers with symptoms from travelling to farms and communities or causing larger outbreaks, as well as preventing associated economic losses and interruptions to the B.C. food supply.
B.C. anticipates returning to pre-pandemic numbers for seasonal agricultural temporary foreign workers in 2022, which is approximately 11,000 workers.
Support for the self-isolation of temporary foreign workers through the B.C. Farm Worker Safe Isolation Program will continue to be available to farmers. The program reimburses employers to a maximum of $3,000 per farm worker, based on a 14-day isolation period, for costs associated with providing accommodation and other supports to workers who need to self-isolate.
The safe isolation program is a federal-provincial program funded by B.C.'s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, and the Public Health Agency of Canada. That program runs until March 31, 2023.
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