Alberta Government News: Farm & Ranch Owners Families Excluded From New Rules.

[AgrivilleAdmin]

Alberta News Release

http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/newslett.nsf/all/agnw24541

Amendments to the Enhanced Protection for Farm and Ranch Workers Act, confirm the government’s intent to exclude farm and ranch owners, and their families, from Occupational Health and Safety and mandatory Workers’ Compensation Board coverage.

“Across Alberta, we have heard farming and ranching families’ concerns. We know that farming in Alberta is more than a business, it is a way of life. It has always been our intention to preserve that way of life. The amendments explicitly exclude owners of farming or ranching operations, and their family members, from the mandatory application of WCB and OHS rules. We are also introducing amendments to assure Albertans that neighbours can still volunteer to help each other out, without being subject to the new rules.”
- Lori Sigurdson, Minister of Jobs, Skills, Training and Labour

The provisions for family members and non-waged individuals in the amendments were to be set out in regulations. Public concerns about whether OHS rules and WCB coverage applied to family operations required that they be stated within the Act itself for greater clarity and certainty.

“Families will be able to teach their children the farming and ranching way of life, as they always have, and neighbours will be able to volunteer to help each other out in times of need, as they always have.”
- Oneil Carlier, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry

At a glance
â—¾The amendments to the Enhanced Protection for Farm and Ranch Workers Act explicitly exclude the application of WCB and OHS to owners of a farm or ranch operation, family members of the owners, and friends and neighbours who volunteer their time on the farm or ranch.
â—¾Only where non-owner or non-family waged individuals are involved in a farm or ranch operation will WCB and OHS apply to the operation, and only to those non-owner and non-family waged individuals.
â—¾If waged individuals are owners or family members of owners, the application of WCB and OHS will be excluded as it pertains to those individuals.
â—¾In all cases, farm and ranch families may elect to choose WCB coverage for waged owners, waged family members and unwaged neighbours and friends.

[binthere]

now thats performance. we did not get the "they can eat cake" attitude. a government not scared to admit wrong and fix it. regardless of stripe.

[grassfarmer]

Yep, can't complain about that.

[FarmRanger]

Really guys?... they got called out on their top-down legislation that had no input from the sector that they're targeting. When the backlash hits, they try to sell some cockamame story about it saving lives. (By the way, how does unionizing farm labourers save lives anyway?)

How long will it take before they're exploiting widows?

The Conservatives may have done what they wanted, but at least they pretended to listen before bringing in legislation. All we get is, "we're passing it, trust us".

[binthere]

f.r. if you are including schemes like brad walls failing carbon sequestration deal then i would agree. we should have no tolerance for any top down legislation.

[seedsman]

This bill is being promoted to be about safety. However, in the last 20 years, only 9% of deaths on farms in AB were hired workers. Many of the farm accidents were recreational accidents, that happened on farms (drownings, kids on quads, horses, etc). 47% of deaths were the farm owner. If the government realy was concerned about farm safety, everyone should have been included.

The government really only seems concerned about giving farm workers the right to unionize and bargain collectively.

At one of the consultation sessions, there was a question posted on board that asked "Is there ever a time when a farm worker's strike would cause serious problems for a farm?" (or something like that).

Biggest issue for most people is that the government is saying "We're going to pass this bill and then write the regulations. Trust us."

[perfecho]

Actually Farm Danger...up until this one, the ND were very open, consults, open forums...they screwed up on this one and ( deleted these lines...), you would see the legislation that the Cons put through without barely a whisper...
GF, you are better at the details...
(Again, not an NDP supporter, but give credit where credit is due...and crap where crap is due..)

[grassfarmer]

Openness with the electorate has not been a feature of either the Provincial (AB) or Federal Con Governments recently. Look at the TPP negotiations and the last AB Gov was a model of extreme top down, dictatorial legislation development and implementation.

[vvalk]

Great point on the safety. If this was truly about safety family members would not be excluded full stop. Hutterites ( by far the worst offenders not even close) would not be exempt. BTW workers comp is not the issue. So what wages go up 4%, it's going to be the labour rules and what safety measures you have to take that no one seems to be talking about. Will be be paying overtime or even allowed to work 100 hours a week. Can we work alone and what will the protocols be? Will we have to have safety harnesses whenever we go over 6ft all auger covers go back on even when you can't get grain through them or get the auger into the bin etc etc etc etc

[farmaholic]

Just a union government planting it's seeds.