Agriculture Minister Lana Popham commended the work of Bylands Nurseries in West Kelowna on AM 1150’s Early Edition in how they handled their COVID-19 outbreak.
“What they really did was they shone an early light on what we needed to do very quickly so that this didn't happen around the province. And so, that sort of prompted us to put in the rules around what happens when foreign workers arrive in British Columbia to work on farms.”
Following the outbreak at Bylands, Popham says they implemented orders for foreign workers to be isolated for 14 days upon arrival to BC.
“We’ve had about 15-16 hundred workers arrive. We're expecting to bring an additional 4,400 workers in. We're trying to get up to about 6,000."
Popham noted that bringing workers in also depends on the measures in place in Mexico, Guatemala, and the other countries workers travel from.
But on this end she says things are going smoothly, adding that farmers are feeling a little bit of hope they’ll have the staff they need for harvesting.