Latest news with #Stratford
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Weber County farmers hope to see immigration reform for agriculture workers
On Thursday, President Donald Trump said immigration policies are hurting the agriculture industry and that changes are coming. In Weber County, some farmers hope to see major changes. Ronald Stratford is a fourth-generation dairy farmer. 'I'm kind of a hobby farmer these days,' he told ABC4. He used to have 600 dairy cows. His family had been doing that for 65 years. However, these days the dairy cows are gone. In their place, 40 head that he's raising for meat. 'Semi-retired if you want to call it that but I don't know if this time of year that applies at all,' he added.' Currently, he has a couple of part-time employees. 'We had four full-time employees and my brother and me,' he said talking about staffing when the farm had dairy cows. 'It was a full-time job 24/7, 365.' As a farmer and the president of Utah Farmers Union, watching ICE raids at farms in other states has him worried. 'It's devastating,' he stated. 'If we lose the immigrant labor, I don't know how they'll survive.' Stratford said it is often hard to find employees, so farmers hire who the can. He often hired migrant workers throughout the years. They would show him identification before being hired. 'I would probably be foolish to think that not all of those guys had legal papers, but they do now,' he added. 'The work they did for me was essential. I couldn't have run this business without them.' He said those who worked for him were always hardworking, frugal, and family-oriented. He hopes there will be reform to allow those who've been working in the states to gain legal status, and help farmers hire year-round migrant workers. 'There is no federal program for a dairyman to hire the help that he needs,' Stratford stated. 'There is the H2A program which is seasonal workers only. Dairy is not seasonal.' A few miles away, Ogden Bay Produce uses the H2A visa program. 'Once we do all that paperwork and prove that there's that need,' owner and operator Matt Peterson told ABC4. 'We advertise and prove that no local citizens will want to apply for that position. Then the government will give us a number of worker visas.' Peterson said they fill about two thirds of their 30 seasonal employee positions this way. The visa allows the worker to stay from a few weeks to a few months. The longest any of Peterson's workers were able to stay was seven months. 'It's nice to know that these guys' whole purpose of being in our country is to work for me,' Peterson said. 'That's kind of some nice security to know.' Without the program, it would be impossible to run the farm's 170 acres because much of the produce they grow must be harvested by hand. 'But it's not a perfect program,' Peterson added. 'It's incredibly expensive for me as an operator to implement it.' Peterson explained that he provides the workers with housing, covers all travel costs to bring the workers to Utah and then to send them to Mexico when their visa is up, and the federal government sets the wage he pays them. He said this often puts a squeeze on farms, which then causes their prices to increase. 'I think all of the programs need to be reformed and make it easier for the farmers to get these workers up when we need them,' said Peterson. 'And then the guys that are here locally that want to work and have lived the majority of their lives here in Utah or America, who aren't documented and want to work, it's really difficult for them.' He echoed Stratford in naming the strong values his employees demonstrate, and said many of them have become some of his best friends. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CTV News
2 days ago
- Politics
- CTV News
Community members call on Stratford to improve housing affordability, city says it's a top priority
Stratford is being called out for its lack of an affordable housing strategy. CTV's Jeff Pickel has the response from the city. A group of people concerned about Stratford's housing plan took the issue straight to council chambers. Former resident Tanner Bergsma led the group on Tuesday. 'It really comes to light that the city could do a lot better in terms of its housing plan,' Bergsma, who now lives in Waterloo while attending Wilfrid Laurier University, said. Bergsma also runs a not for profit called Unity Beyond Borders, and said he works with local low income residents who have trouble finding suitable housing. Bergsma said he met with the city's housing manager and left feeling the city did not have a good grasp on the affordable housing situation. 'By logic, how can you fix a problem if you don't understand the problem and understand the statistics of the problem?' said Bergsma. Bergsma said the city's approach lacks specific aims at increasing the supply of affordable housing, and is more interested in increasing the overall supply of market rate housing. Tanner Bergsma, Stratford, Ont. Tanner Bergsma, founder of Unity Beyond Borders and housing advocate, posed for a photo. (Jeff Pickel/CTV News) According to the city, while they appreciate the concern, Bergsma's critiques are not accurate. They said they are in the process of drafting a new housing and homelessness ten-year plan after the previous ten-year plan ended in 2024. They said using real time data is at the core of it's decision-making process. 'We use data that we collected locally to identify what the needs are, every month we publish statistics that will show what the current needs are for individuals seeking housing in the community,' said Kim McElroy, director of social services for Stratford and Perth County. The City of Stratford estimates there are currently 148 people in Perth County who are homeless, including roughly 23 who are unsheltered, a number that has increased since March of this year. The current waitlist for affordable housing in Stratford is just over 250. The city said they are currently looking at city owned properties that could be used for affordable housing, but said, like every community, there are challenges. 'The speed of this is slow because there's a big need, and there's a limited supply of money,' said Stratford Mayor Martin Ritsma. Bergsma said he plans to keep the pressure on city council and plans to be back at city hall on the June 23rd meeting.
CBC
2 days ago
- General
- CBC
Freedom on 3 wheels: Residents of P.E.I. retirement home get the joys of biking without the work
People living at Andrews of Stratford are just like many other members of the community this spring: They're getting out on a bike. It's not just any bike, though. It's an electric trishaw, a three-wheeled bike pedalled by a trained pilot that accommodates two passengers so that people with mobility issues can hit the trails too. CBC P.E.I. went along for a ride.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE How the London Underground turned into a hellhole: It's used as an open toilet, filled with fare-dodgers and pickpockets and sex attacks are surging. FRED KELLY'S investigation reveals shocking truth
It's just gone midday in Stratford, east London, and a young man – no more than 25 years old and wearing expensive wireless earphones and designer sunglasses – slips through the London Underground ticket barriers without paying and waltzes down the underpass towards the Central line platform. Little does he know, the Daily Mail is in hot pursuit.
CBC
3 days ago
- Business
- CBC
Stratford council denies rezoning for proposed townhouse development verging on wetland
Social Sharing Stratford's council has turned down a rezoning request that would have allowed townhouses to be developed on land verging on a wetland in the central P.E.I. town. The developer, R&D Builders, applied to the town to rezone an area of the Forest Trails subdivision from medium to high density. That would let the general contractor build 32 stacked townhouses, along with two apartment buildings with a total of 78 units. A group of residents in the neighbourhood opposed the project, citing concerns about too much density in the area and the destruction of a piece of wetland. Stratford councillors appeared to side with those residents during their regular monthly council meeting Wednesday night, voting 3-1 to defeat the rezoning motion. "I think it's important to remember the principle of respect here. It's not only respect for our residents… but we're also obligated to follow our zoning and development bylaw and the advice of planning experts," Mayor Steve Ogden said during the discussion. This could cost the town a lot of money. It could end up being something that is really not in the best interest of the town... — Stratford Mayor Steve Ogden "We really need to have good reasoning behind everything that we decide because this could cost the town a lot of money. It could end up being something that is really not in the best interest of the town if we [make] the wrong decision here." The town held a public hearing on the rezoning application last October, during which councillors heard significant objections to the proposal. Despite the pushback, Stratford's planning committee supported the developer's request in May and council subsequently passed a first reading of the rezoning motion. Before all that, in November of last year, R&D Builders hired the private company Fundy Engineering to assess the wetland area. Residents have told CBC News that the results of that survey led to a revision of the wetland's boundaries, but that the provincial government has since reinforced the original designation. On Wednesday night, councillors voting against the rezoning also raised concerns about the amount of traffic the development would create, along with "spot zoning" a high-density project in a medium-density area. In a statement Thursday, R&D Builders co-owner Mitch Roggeveen said the company will continue to work with the town to develop a proposal for the site "that contributes positively to the Town of Stratford while remaining environmentally responsible." He added: "We've been waiting since last fall to meet on-site with the Department of Environment and Fundy Engineering to determine the precise wetland boundary. This assessment must take place during the full growing season, and the meeting is now scheduled for later this month. "Any lots previously identified as falling within the wetland area were removed from our proposal months ago. We fully recognize the importance of wetlands and are committed to respecting all environmental regulations in the area."
