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Many had arrived only weeks earlier for cherry season and did not have a B.C. Services Card.
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“This should not have happened. Canada’s emergency services should immediately include them,” Ordonez said.
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The Migrant Workers Centre and other B.C. support organizations are calling on the government to provide emergency support to migrant workers displaced by the wildfires, including expedited access to Employment Insurance while their usual workplaces remain closed.
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Seasonal workers help keep the province’s fruit harvest moving, but many are on employer-specific work permits and can’t start working for another employer if wildfire wipes out their work.
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Julio said the workers are scheduled to fly home at the end of this week, losing about two weeks of work. He and his wife also lost many belongings in the fire, including Christmas gifts they had planned to take home to a small town in central Mexico.
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“Most of our guys need every dollar on their contract here to be able to support their family for the year back home,” Julio said.
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Raul Gatica of the Dignidad Migrante Society said what is happening is not new.
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When devastating floods and landslides swept across Abbotsford and Chilliwack in 2021, migrant workers who suddenly lost their jobs were left with few options for financial support, he said.
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Of roughly 200 workers the Dignidad Migrante Society provided emergency support to at the time, only about 35 were able to access Employment Insurance for lost work, Gatica said, because they did not meet EI eligibility requirements. Most were flown home without any financial relief.
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While the Canadian Red Cross eventually stepped in, providing $2,000 in emergency aid per worker, Gatica said the money did not arrive until months after the disaster. Forty recipients were tracked down in their home countries to receive the funds.
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Four years later, Gatica fears the same cycle is beginning again.
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“Workers have been calling me from where they are staying, begging for help getting home, food or even new underwear,” Gatica said.
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“Ironically, B.C. has just been praising Mexican firefighters to help battle these wildfires, yet when we ask for support for temporary foreign workers, there’s little to nothing.”
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For Manuel, 62, one of the migrant workers now facing the loss of his seasonal income, federal EI requirements put help just out of reach.
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A father of three from Oaxaca, Mexico, the evacuee is currently sharing a four-bedroom apartment in Penticton with 12 other displaced migrant workers.
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His cherry-farm contract was supposed to run until October, and he expected to earn about $2,400 a month working 14-hour days. His employer told him the crops did not survive the disaster.
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“There is no more work,” Manuel said through a translator. He is among 30 workers from another Summerland orchard stranded after the wildfire.
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One of his three children is sick and relies on medication Manuel pays for.
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“My biggest worry right now is my family,” he said while seated on a curb in Penticton.
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Manuel has spent roughly 20 seasons working in B.C. and, like other temporary foreign workers, has paid into Employment Insurance through deductions from his paycheques.
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He’s adding his voice to calls for the federal government to provide EI support for the days workers have lost because of the wildfire.
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