Alberta announces changes to farm safety bill; opponents say confusion reigns

The premier added the legislation would not interfere with a family’s ability to teach its children about farming, to have them do chores or to accept help from neighbours, and the law would not require parents to register children for workers’ compensation or regulate how farmers operated their households.

“The amendments introduced today make things very clear”.

The amendments, introduced Monday, state that workers’ compensation benefits and occupational health and safety rules will only apply on farms that have paid workers.

Notley acknowledged it was a mistake not to include that information in the bill. They say there needs to be more time for consultation with people affected by the bill. The workers who get injured on factory farms and who have no recourse.

– If waged individuals are owners or family members of owners, the application of WCB and OHS will be excluded as it pertains to those individuals. “We’re working with paid, non-family members…and I think that will have an impact”.

Progressive Conservative House Leader Richard Starke said he believes the government did initially want to bring family farms under health and safety rules.

If passed, only operations where paid workers who are not family members would be required to pay into WCB.

In his 2009 fatality inquiry report on the 2006 death of farm worker Kevan Chandler, provincial justice Peter Barley took exception with the exclusion of agricultural workers from Alberta’s workplace laws.

The Alberta government is making some changes to new farm safety legislation.

The proposed amendment comes after thousands of farmers and ranchers protested across the province and clogged highways with lengthy convoys of farm equipment, fearful the bill would kill the family farm.