Demands Ontario enact legislation to protect agriculture workers from heat

Jul 10, 2024

Saying Ontario shouldn't wait for a tragedy before acting, a group that advocates for migrant workers is demanding the province enact legislation to protect those who work in agriculture from extreme heat.

Justice for Migrant Workers has made the demand before. It released a similar statement a year ago. At that time, the Ontario government committed to legislating heat regulations. So far, it hasn't acted on that promise.

On Monday, the group issued an open letter to the Ford government, pointing out that agriculture workers are 35 times as likely as the general public to die of heat exposure.

"The Ontario Human Rights Commission has stated that access to cooling is a human rights issue and that people with disabilities, who are Black, and are low income are disproportionately affected when heat waves and other heat events occur," said the letter. "Denying migrant farmworkers, who are overwhelmingly racialized, who are more likely to be injured on the job, and who work long hours for little pay, is a form of environmental racism."

It's up to employers to provide proper breaks, hours of work, and access to shade and water, a responsibility too many shirk, said Justice for Migrant Workers.

The group's demands include closing farm operations in extreme heat, strengthening anti-reprisal measures, extending OSHA protections to cover agricultural worker accommodations, and strengthening anti-reprisal measures for those who speak out.

"My co-workers and I had to work in temperatures of 38 - 45 C when a heat warning is in effect," said Jonathan, one worker in the Haldimand-Norfolk region. "A lot of us are afraid to raise any attention or speak out because we would be victimized or not requested back to work the following year in Canada.."

Other jurisdictions have acted. The United States has proposed a national heat standard, and states like Washington, California, and Colorado have enacted protections.

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Video: Spring 2026 weather outlook for Wisconsin; What an early-arriving El Niño could mean

Northeast Wisconsin is a small corner of the world, but our weather is still affected by what happens across the globe.

That includes in the equatorial Pacific, where changes between El Niño and La Niña play a role in the weather here -- and boy, have there been some abrupt changes as of late.

El Niño and La Niña are the two phases of what is collectively known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO for short. These are the swings back and forth from unusually warm to unusually cold sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator.

Since this past September, we have been in a weak La Niña, which means water temperatures near the Eastern Pacific equator have been cooler than usual. That's where we're at right now.

Even last fall, the long-term outlook suggested a return to neutral conditions by spring and potentially El Niño conditions by summer.

But there are some signs this may be happening faster than usual, which could accelerate the onset of El Niño.

Over the last few weeks, unusually strong bursts of westerly winds farther west in the Pacific -- where sea surface temperatures are warmer than average -- have been observed. There is a chance that this could accelerate the warming of those eastern Pacific waters and potentially push us into El Niño sooner than usual.

If we do enter El Nino by spring -- which we'll define as the period of March, April and May -- there are some long-term correlations with our weather here in Northeast Wisconsin.

Looking at a map of anomalously warm weather, most of the upper Great Lakes doesn't show a strong correlation, but in general, the northern tiers of the United States do tend to lean to that direction.

The stronger correlation is with precipitation. El Niño conditions in spring have historically come with a higher risk of very dry weather over that time frame, so this will definitely be a transition we'll have to watch closely as we move out of winter.