Immigration Helps Meet Farm Labour Needs

Source: Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food

Finding reliable farm labour in Saskatchewan is not always easy, but producer Paul La Casse went a little further than most to find employees for his operation: to South America, in fact.

La Casse operates a 10,000-acre family farm in the Kincaid district, about 80 kilometres west of Assiniboia. He chooses his crop mixture based on “marketability and cash flow.” This year, that means cultivation of cereal grains, peas, barley and brown mustard. He also has a significant acreage in pasture, since he is running a herd of 200 cows.

The La Casse family has farmed in the area since the 1950s, and Paul says there was never a time that they did it without some outside help.

“My mom was cooking for harvesting crews in the fifties, so I can never remember a time when we didn’t have hired hands in our operation,” La Casse said.

When he began managing the farm in partnership with his mother, Louisa, in the 1980s, they were still using mainly seasonal labour for seeding and harvest.

Eventually, he found that recruiting short-term workers twice a year was simply not efficient, and decided to employ full-time employees to work in the operation. In recent years, it became challenging to recruit and retain these workers, who had generally been young men.

So, in the winter of 2005, La Casse began to look farther afield.

“I read an article about a woman in southern Manitoba who was working to attract immigrants from Paraguay to work on farms there, he said. “I gave her a call and that’s how things got started.”

His conversation with Bertha Penner resulted in La Casse discovering a community connection between the Canadian prairies and Paraguay: the international Mennonite community.

“A large percentage of rural Paraguayans are Mennonite,” according to La Casse. “That’s the link with the folks in Manitoba.”

La Casse got in touch with Citizenship and Immigration Canada (now Service Canada), which conducted a job study on the positions he had to offer, and the issues with recruiting Canadian workers to fill them. With approval granted to offer the jobs to non-Canadians, his search began.

Over a period of about six months, he completed the required paperwork and began looking at prospects. “You have to remember that once Immigration is on side, you are just beginning,” he commented.

He reviewed a number of candidates before deciding on two 29-year-old men. Both are married, and intended to bring their wives with them. “I felt that having a family unit rather than a single man would create some stability for them, and a source of support,” said La Casse.

In August of 2006, La Casse and his family welcomed the two Paraguayan couples to Regina. One couple also brought their four-year-old daughter.

Their mother tongues are Portugese, Spanish and German. The La Casse operation has another hand who speaks German, and a neighbour who speaks Spanish, both of whom were instrumental in helping to bridge the language barrier. In addition, the new workers have committed to studying English, and La Casse himself is now taking Spanish.

The workers are here on 24-month work visas, after which time they will be able to apply for landed immigrant status.

La Casse says his initial experience with the new employees has been positive. He describes them as very hard working, industrious and, “in a word, 'respectful'.”

They have been introduced to the local Mennonite community, which has embraced them.

In their native country, their maximum income expectation is about $300 per month, so the wages they receive here are an enormous improvement.

La Casse says the other important thing is that these are true farm folks, who understand and love the rural lifestyle. He is proud to have helped bring new families and young children into his community.

Will immigrant workers become Saskatchewan’s new farm labour force? “I guess I’m the guinea pig around here,” said La Casse. “My neighbours are watching to see how it works out for me. I expect that soon they’ll all be asking how I did it, and I’ll enjoy sharing my experience.”

For more information, contact:
Paul La Casse
(306) 264-3680