On Thursday, February 24, a total of 108 seasonal agricultural workers left the island for Canada, where they would work in Ontario and its environs.
The workers were given a traditional send-off ceremony at the Overseas Employment Services Centre of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security in downtown Kingston.
Minister of Labour and Social Security Karl Samuda stated in his speech that the government intends to move aggressively to gain a larger part of the Canadian labour market.
“When I look at the numbers who are going abroad, I see hardly anyone at all [going to] the Prairie Provinces… Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, that is the wheat belt, where there are major agricultural operations. But there is nobody from Jamaica going to those farms and I ask the question why,” Samuda said.
