The Leader of the Bloc Québécois Return to Mercier

For a second time in less than three weeks and just a few days after the elections were called, the Leader of the Bloc Québécois Yves-François Blanchet returned to Mercier. Seasonal foreign workers was the main theme of the visit to local farmers.

Translation Amanda Bennett

After Mr. Blanchet’s visit to Robert Thibert Inc., where Bloc candidate Patrick O’Hara had worked in the past, it was now time to visit a field of green peppers farmed by Christian Roy in Mercier.

Yves-François Blanchet, accompanied by candidates Alain Therrien (La Prairie), Claude DeBellefeuille (Salaberry-Suroît), Christine Normandin (Saint-Jean) and Patrick O’Hara (Châteauguay-Lacolle), primarily spoke about the issue of seasonal foreign workers who come assist Quebec farmers.

The Mercier farmer laments the delays for processing requests by the federal government which results in delays to agricultural workforce arrivals in the province.

“The transition for seasonal workers from one company to another is burdensome and extremely complex,” Mr. Blanchet admits.

Last year, in partnership with farming companies and members of the Union des Producteurs Agricoles (UPA), the Bloc made suggestions to compensate for these issues and to streamline some of the administrative issues.

The Bloc in Problem-Solving Mode

“It’s about seeing whether we could create 3-year work permits for these people. And at the end of the first year, you add the fourth, at the end of the fourth, the fifth and so on,” the Bloc leader suggested before the media.

According to Mr. Blanchet, this way of doing things would create a certain predictability and alleviate an administrative burden for the farmers who employ these individuals.

The party leader also suggested the possibility of pooling establishments in the sector.

“Workers could be hired by a combination of several companies that would be able to share workers according to harvests and needs within a respectful and rigorous administrative framework,” he declared.

Lastly, François Blanchet would welcome the prioritization of agricultural workers’ files among the foreign worker files to be processed.

“If you don’t have workers at harvest time, there just won’t be a harvest,” he said.

Preparing for the Elections

Mr. Blanchet’s second visit to the region in such a short time isn’t inconsequential. Recall that in the 2019 federal election, the Châteauguay-Lacolle riding was narrowly won by Liberal incumbent Brenda Shanahan with slightly more than 1% of the votes over the Bloc Québécois.