Ontario promises crackdown on recruiters as farm outbreaks grow

FILE PHOTO: Migrant workers wear masks and practice social distancing to help slow the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) while trimming red cabbage at Mayfair Farms in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, Canada April 28, 2020. REUTERS/Shannon VanRaes/File Photo

TORONTO (Reuters) - The Canadian province of Ontario will crack down on "fly-by-night" recruitment agencies sending workers on to farms, the premier said on Monday, after a testing blitz identified a major coronavirus outbreak on a farm in southwestern Ontario.

"We're reaching out to all the farmers, we're getting a list of these recruitment agencies. We found out some are fly-by-nighters just trying to make a quick buck, so we're going to put an end to that," Premier Doug Ford told a press conference.