West Kelowna council has approved housing changes to for temporary farm workers.
“We’ve made some changes to the definition of what a farm is, and that’s our ‘farm unit’ definition. We’ve also adopted some changes to the length that these temporary agricultural dwellings can be used, and also some changes to the expectations for the living conditions…how they’re being housed and the conditions in which they’re being housed,” explained City Planning Manager, Brent Magnan.
Up until now, only farmers with a certain size of parcel would be eligible to set up temporary housing for workers. That creates a problem for local farmers that have scattered land and not just one big operation, but still need the appropriate amount of workers. “We’ve made some changes to that, to allow them to essentially compile or use all of their farms within the community to give them an opportunity to access the farm worker dwelling regulations,” said Magnan.
The maximum length that a temporary worker can be housed has been expanded to allow for staffing during off-season activities like winter pruning. If temporary workers are housed in a mobile shelter, such as an RV or tent, the longest term they can stay is 8 months. If a permanent or semi-permanent structure has been built, the term is 8 to 10 months.
Magnan says the changes to living condition regulations were in response to community concerns from last year. “The concerns were that adequate living conditions, in accordance with the Public Health Act, weren’t being provided to these agricultural farm workers.” After review, staff found that the bylaws didn’t address those issues and required some additional language to ensure basic living conditions are provided.
Agricultural operations will now be expected to provide, “Basic living conditions and that come in the form of privately accessible washrooms, showers, warm water, kitchen facilities typically can be communal, and these things have ot be on the same parcel that the workers are living…regulations that require permanent buildings or semi-permanent buildings to be connected to sewer or some sort of a septic system,” added Magnan.
The West Kelowna Planner says it’s not just a West Kelowna initiative, and that governing bodies across the Okanagan are working towards improved living conditions for temporary farm workers.
“Starting in 2015, there was a big sort of collaborative effort between all of the communities to try and raise awareness and try to figure out a way that we could manage this collectively. It does take every different municipality or Regional District. I think we’re all looking at the same things and singing from the same song-sheet.”