Mr. Percy Hatfield: Ontario welcomes about 20,000 temporary foreign workers each and every year. That’s more or less the entire population of Niagara-on-the-Lake or Amherstburg or Collingwood or Essex, Huntsville or Tecumseh. Generally speaking, they live in open-concept bunkhouses, or too many of them are squeezed into a crowded home, with little privacy.

Toronto - Jun. 16, 2020: Mr. Percy Hatfield: Ontario welcomes about 20,000 temporary foreign workers each and every year. That’s more or less the entire population of Niagara-on-the-Lake or Amherstburg or Collingwood or Essex, Huntsville or Tecumseh. Generally speaking, they live in open-concept bunkhouses, or too many of them are squeezed into a crowded home, with little privacy.

This pandemic has hit these workers hard. The Globe and Mail claims 600 migrant workers have already tested positive for COVID-19 in Ontario. Speaker, in my area, two young men from Mexico have died. They were 24 and 31 years old.

Canada is failing our temporary foreign workers, and Ontario is failing our migrant workers as well. They come here because Canadians don’t want to do the work. They put in 60 hours a week or more to support their families back home. If they call in sick, they don’t get paid, and that’s a problem.

These are essential workers, but because of their circumstances, they are also treated as expendable and exploitable. Their wages should be protected if they catch COVID-19. We need a wage subsidy for our migrant workers. Good things grow in Ontario, and we need migrant workers to get local farm fresh fruits and vegetables to our kitchens and tables.

We can do better, we must do better, for these essential workers.