Federal online portal provides links, resources to local workers with agri-food jobs

A new online portal launched by the federal Ministry of Agriculture hopes to raise awareness amongst Canadians about job resources in the agriculture and food industries.

The Step Up to the Plate portal's primary purpose is to raise awareness about agriculture and food sector jobs and providing access to Canada’s national job bank. Job bank listings can be filtered by region and a search today, May 27, found 31 listings in the Okanagan.

The need for local employees in the agriculture and food industries has been exacerbated this year with the COVID-19 pandemic, Ministry of Agriculture spokesperson Patrick Girard said in an email today, May 27.

He said each year, more than 15,000 agri-food jobs remain vacant and that number will be even harder to fill this year.

"It’s difficult to predict the overall 2020 gap as there are many variables and uncertainties related to temporary foreign workers travelling to Canada, although to date, more than 80 per cent of expected temporary foreign workers destined for agricultural and food processing jobs have already arrived in Canada,” Girard said.

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