Some of the 130 Vincentians who left for Canada on Tuesday will take up job on marijuana farms.
The marijuana cultivation is in addition to the usual fruit and vegetable production to which the Vincentians are accustomed.
The Vincentians are taking up job on marijuana farms even as the conversation on the medical marijuana industry in St. Vincent and the Grenadines has gone silent, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
The workers left for Toronto on board a chartered Sunwing flight.
Minister of Labour Saboto Caesar went to Argyle International Airport to see the workers off.
Caesar wished them well and invoked the guidance of God for their journey and well-being while in Canada.
He noted that as a country with extremely strong belief in the God it was very important to put God first before boarding the flight.
“So I am just asking persons wherever you may be to remember that without God we are nothing and that we are going out in circumstances which are very different and that the world that we are going to meet is not the world that we left there.”
The minister also thanked the farm workers and the Department of Labour for their cooperation throughout the process.
Speaking to the API just prior to boarding, Caesar thanked the OECS Secretariat and labour departments throughout the OECS for the role they played in ensuring the arrangements were in place for the workers.
“They’ve been working very hard over the past two months to ensure that even though there is a crisis, there is a pandemic in the world that we were able to mobilise farmers in SVG, we were able to work with employers in Canada and the government of Canada to ensure that today was possible.”
The minister says all of the farm workers were given the rapid test for COVID-19 and they all came back negative.
The farm workers were also given a package with hand sanitizers, etc., to ensure they continue practicing proper hygiene.
Minister Caesar thanked the families for lending their family members to the world to work. He also urged the workers to save their money and to make the best use of the opportunity.
Redictlous, a big let down and Disgrace to Vincentian
Thank the families for lending their families to the world of work? Canada is the world? Never heard so many crap in a long time. These ulp politicians always try to involve God in their foolishness.
BTW the local medical marijuana situation gone to the dogs? All the hype it had pre-COVID-19 seems to melt away with the hot sun we are now facing. There is no way the virus could have affected the medical marijuana industry in the way it has.
Absolutely nothing is happening. It is as if the coronavirus was what the government wanted to happen because there was nothing in place at all for the industry to take off and fully benefit the ganja farmers.
Workers are being sent to Canada to work on ganja farms at a time like this. Are we that desperate? While things rough here and we need jobs who will be responsible for these workers should they come down ill with the virus? Lord I pray for the safety of our vincenrian dark workers. They are being used as chits in a gamble by their own government.
And without love we are nothing,
What protection plan was arranged for these farmers? Don’t forget they would be exposed considerably to the COVID virus, just like those in the US.