How the end of a pilot program for migrant food workers might affect your meals episode artwork

EPISODE · May 5, 2025 · 21 MIN

How the end of a pilot program for migrant food workers might affect your meals

from This Matters · host Toronto Star

Guests: Star reporters Nicholas Keung and Ghada Alsharif During the pandemic, they were called essential. Migrant workers who packed our meat, picked our produce, and kept grocery shelves stocked. In return, many were offered a pathway to permanent residency through a federal pilot program. Now, that door has quietly closed. The Agri-Food Immigration Pilot is being phased out by the federal government. And with it, thousands of low-wage food workers are once again left in Canada's continuing cycle of "permanently temporary" immigration. Why was the program shut down? What does this mean for the people who grow and deliver our food and for Canada's food supply chain with a trade war with the U.S. looming over it all? Two Star immigration and labour reporters break it down.  Produced by Saba Eitizaz and Paulo Marques

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published May 5, 2025

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