Zak Vescera for The Tyee writes, “B.C. farmers hire about 6,000 foreign seasonal workers annually. Hiring peaks in the summer when cherries, peaches, berries and the rest of the province’s bounty is ready to be picked. The BC Fruit Growers’ Association estimates that migrant workers today make up more than half of members’ workforces. And workers often depend on the income they make in B.C. to provide for their families in Mexico, Guatemala, Jamaica and elsewhere.
But catastrophic climate events have put their income in jeopardy. Fires forced hundreds of workers to evacuate from West Kelowna and Lake Country earlier this month. Others have tried to work through the heat and smoke that has blanketed the region. Now it appears some may head home much sooner than they had hoped.”
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