2009-08-25
Karena Walter
The owners of a St. Catharines greenhouse operation say the government needs to crack down on independent employment agencies after their company was fined $5,000 Friday for hiring two illegal foreign workers.
Welland Tribune
The owners of a St. Catharines greenhouse operation say the government needs to crack down on independent employment agencies after their company was fined $5,000 Friday for hiring two illegal foreign workers.
Gerard Schouwenaar, of the family business Orchard Park Growers, said they believed the men were allowed to work after receiving assurances from the agency through which the men were hired.
“It was always under the understanding they were legal employees,” Schouwenaar said.
“That’s the frustrating part.”
The company pleaded guilty in the Ontario Court of Justice Monday to two counts of employing a foreign national not authorized to be employed under the immigration and refugee protection act.
The fine, to be paid in 90 days, was ordered after a joint submission by lawyers on both sides.
Federal prosecutor Darren Anger said the company didn’t exercise due diligence as required to ensure the workers from Thailand could legally work.
But Schouwenaar, who after court explained it wasn’t practical to fight the charge through the trial process, said the company thought it had covered all its bases by using the employment agency.
He said they received worker compensation numbers and GST numbers from the agency. The company also had a written contract stating the burden of clearing the workers would fall on the agency, he said.
“In my mind, we’ve done due diligence.”
The agency wasn’t charged.
Anger told the St. Catharines court that Canada Border Services inland enforcement officers — a special unit that deals with immigration issues inside the country — went to the Gregory Road business on June 23. They received information the company was employing foreign nationals.
The two men had been issued visas to enter Canada under the federal Low Skilled Worker Program, but were reported missing from the farms they were supposed to be working on, Anger said.
The program allows employers to bring in foreign workers for positions it can’t fill with Canadians. If workers in the program want to change the terms of their employment, formal approval must be attained. In the case of the two men, no one had applied to change the terms, Anger said.
The pair were located and arrested. Anger said investigators discovered they had been employed at Orchard Park Growers from mid-2008 and were acquired through an employment agency.
It was a first offence for Orchard Park Growers, in business since 1969.
Schouwenaar said as a result, the company is switching to a migrant workers program to fill five to 10 positions, having lost faith in employment agencies.
His wife, Jennifer, said it’s a shame, because it will mean fewer jobs for new immigrants and refugees already in the country looking for work through agencies.
She said because of language barriers with workers, the company relies on agencies to connect them with proper workers.
“We said, as long as they’re here legally, we will take them.”
The Schouwenaars contacted St. Catharines MP Rick Dykstra’s office about their concerns a few months ago.
“The government has to crack down on these agencies,” she said.
Dykstra said Friday the federal government is studying the matter.
During the previous Parliament, an immigration and citizenship committee did a cross-country examination looking at agencies for migrant workers, nannies and temporary caregivers.
“We need to work towards some sort of process that has them accountable, both to the individuals they represent from other countries and obviously to potential clients like Orchard Park,” said Dykstra, who is parliamentary secretary to the minister of citizenship and immigration.
Dykstra said the committee’s report, submitted to the House of Commons, will now be studied for improvements.
“It’s certainly clear to me that we have agencies, that for the implementation of their business are not licensed provincially or federally,” Dykstra said.
“Obviously, this is the perfect case where if there were to be some further scrutiny on the agents themselves, owners, like the Schouwenaars, would not be in the position that they are in today,” he said.
Agriculture and horticulture workers
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Ontario
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