Recovery plan presented to the federal government.Ottawa—The 8,000 food and beverage manufacturers across Canada have a chronic shortage of workers and they're looking to the federal government to help fix it.In a National Workforce and Recovery Action Plan, Food and Beverage Canada (FBC) says the situation is critical and outlines what is needed to deal with the worker shortfall and strengthen innovation in the sector. The current shortage of 30,000 workers is expected to grow to 65,000 by 2025.Found in every province and region, the sector's almost 8,000 companies play a critical role in contributing to Canada's food sovereignty and economic well-being, and in supporting the country's primary agriculture sector and international trade objectives.“Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Canada's food and beverage manufacturers continued to operate, ensuring Canadians had the food they needed during difficult times. To do that, food and beverage companies invested $1 billion to modify their plants and implement measures to protect the safety of their workers. As this work continues, Canada's food and beverage manufacturing sector is also eyeing the future – ensuring it has the foundation for continued stability and continued growth.”Food and beverage production is the largest manufacturing employer in Canada, with almost 300,000 workers, the plan says. “In addition to a shortage of workers, companies regularly report challenges in ensuring workers have the appropriate skills to match the needs of an evolving sector. Added to this, the food and beverage manufacturing sector is lagging other industries and other countries when it comes to investment in innovative processes and technologies.”The federal government can support the food and beverage manufacturing sector by implementing policies to strengthen innovation and address its skilled trades deficit and ongoing labour needs.Rosemary MacLellan, Vice-President, Strategy & Industry Relations, Gay Lea Foods and Chair of the FBC Policy Committee, “We are calling on the federal government to implement policies necessary to strengthen innovation and incentivize investment in Canada's food and beverage manufacturing sector.”“Measures to combat labour shortages and skills gaps are needed now to ensure the stability of the sector, while we also focus on growing and innovating to meet Canada's future food needs."Michael Burrows, CEO Maple Lodge Farms and FBC Co-Chair, said, “We are regularly hearing from companies that they have challenges finding workers with the appropriate skills to meet our industries evolving needs, even as we lag behind other industries and other countries in investment in innovative processes and technologies. It's time to address these serious challenges and protect our food manufacturing capabilities.”Labour shortages are a major issue in the farm sector Each year, approximately 60,000 temporary foreign workers come to work on farms Canada through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program but many were delayed or couldn't get here because of Covid-19.Meanwhile, the Canadian Agriculture Human Resources Council is studying the effect the pandemic had on farms across the country in 2020 and what labour challenges it created.Alex Binkley is a freelance journalist and writes for domestic and international publications about agriculture, food and transportation issues. He's also the author of two science fiction novels with more in the works.