A study of Ontario's Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program appears to underscore it's importance to the province's horticulture industry.
It argues the program is a key reason the sector is able to generate 5 point 4 billion dollars in economic activity and about 34 thousand jobs.
The study was done by Guelph-based Agri-food Economic Systems.
Foreign Agricultural Resource Management Services - or FARMS - administers the program.
President Ken Forth says the report helps them get an accurate picture of how important the program is to the horticulture sector and the economy as a whole.
The Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program connects Ontario farmers to supplementary seasonal workers from Mexico, Jamaica, Barbados and other parts of the Caribbean.
This year, about 14 hundred and 50 farms used the program to hire nearly 17 thousand workers.
Forth points out the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program is a Canadians first program - meaning supplementary seasonal workers are brought in only if agricultural operators can't find domestic workers to fill their job openings.
