The Farmer / L’agricultrice
Meet Chantale
Chantale Vaillancourt is the co-owner of the Ferme aux Pleine Saveurs, located in Ste-Madeleine, Quebec, with her partner Martin Turcot. Coming from a long line of farmers, she has been producing organic food since 2003 passing her heritage to her two children.
Chantale Vaillancourt est co-propriétaire de la Ferme aux Pleines Saveurs, sise à Ste-Madeleine, au Québec, avec son conjoint Martin Turcot. Tous deux issus d’une longue lignée d’agriculteurs, les co-propriétaires offrent des produits biologiques depuis 2003 tout en transmettant les valeurs héritées du monde agricole à leurs deux enfants.
What changed after COVID began? / Qu’est-ce qui a changé avec la COVID?
"...all the employees would have a break time at the same time, and it was kind of kind of friendly period with, you know, because the...they had to know each other and they didn't have to keep the distance of two metres from each other. So they--it was quite easy for them to, to...to develop, I would say...good link.
And, and also the the lunch time was an hour, so everyone was having their lunch time at the same period, so this is quite a big difference now because we had to make schedule--different schedule from--for the break time and for the lunch time as well. And then the people they, they kind of they don't they don't share as much, I would say, between, between each other. So it's less--that human relation is not as good, I would say, as it was before.
And what else? And so, so yeah, we, we, we used to--to share food sometimes, you know, we had some feast that on Friday at the end of the week and then we would--we would sharing foods. And now it's not, it's not possible to do that. This is another difference...yeah.
And when we do meetings, we have, it's kind of...it's more difficult because we, we have to be apart. So. So it's kind of it's, it's quite different now. But before it was, it was easier of course, we didn't have to disinfect everything to wear a mask, which the mask and the big difference with the mask is you don't, you can't feel the emotion of the other. You can't feel if, if the other person is smiling or angry and hungry, I mean, yeah, we don't, we don't know then. So yeah, this is quite the difference."
« ...jusqu’alors, tous les salariés prenaient leur pause au même moment, c'était convivial car ils se côtoyaient et apprenaient à se connaître. Dès lors qu’il a fallu pratiquer la distanciation physique des deux mètres, il n’était plus aussi facile de tisser des liens. De plus, tous déjeunaient ensemble et cette heure de déjeuner était également l’occasion d’établir de bons rapports. Du coup, avec la pandémie, il a fallu échelonner les pauses du matin et du midi avec pour résultat que les gens n’échangeaient plus autant entre eux. Bref, les rapports humains ne sont plus aussi bons qu’ils l’étaient avant la pandémie. En effet, ils nous arrivaient de mettre nos plats en commun au hasard d’une célébration le vendredi, par exemple. Il n’est plus possible d’en faire autant. Maintenant, lorsque nous tenons des réunions, rien n’est simple. Il faut tout désinfecter, garder ses distances et porter un couvre-visage ce qui ne nous permet pas de ressentir l'émotion de l'autre ne sachant pas si votre interlocuteur sourit ou s’il est en colère.
C’est toute une différence ! »
How did you adapt to COVID in the workplace? / Comment vous êtes-vous adaptée à la COVID sur le lieu de travail?
"When I knew that things would be very different with Covid...
We were afraid that our temporary workers could not make it to Canada... We are like, OK, so So it was something we were quite stressful in the last spring because of that. But at the end we found out that OK it was possible, so it was kind of a release, (…) This is something we we depend on the the temporary workers with the agriculture in Canada and Quebec (…) if we won't have them, we won't, we will not be able to to do agriculture (…) I am concerned about the, we're concerned about the fact that, uhm, if there is no temporary workers, there is no agriculture. So if one day it's not possible to to have them, ah, i don't know what's going to happen.
Transcribed: …we were afraid that our temporary workers could not make it, to come in Canada. You know we, we thought, you know, probably this is something that could, that could happen, that they can't, they can't come over because it was kind of difficult to, to organize everything for, for the...countries...the two countries. So we were like, "Oh, wow, what are we going to do if...?" It was kind of panicking for us,? For us I mean Martin and I because if they are not here, if if we don't, can't, if we, if we can't, we can't have our workers from Guatemala, it's like it's not possible for us to do the, all the activities that are scheduled or that are planned because we...would have to downgrade a lot, to downgrade a lot of our activity, and especially for us having a, the CSA program where there's lots of customers that pay, they pay in advance. It's kind of, it's kind of, I mean, not panicking, but we are like, OK, so we, we, we have to. We have to to to to give them the...to deliver the veggies. Of course, we, this is, this is something. This is the basic thing that we have to do. But if we don't have all the workers, how are we going to do that? How do we, how are we going to do that? We, we were like, OK, so that was something we were quite stressful in the last spring because of that. But at the end we found out that, OK, it was possible, so it was kind of a release so...So this is, this is at this time, you know that we realize, OK, so this is really bad. This is something, we, we depend on the temporary workers. We, the agriculture in Canada, in Quebec. I mean, I guess all around the world depend on them, depend on the temporary workers, and so it's, it's a situation that, that is....kind of--I'm concerned about that. And at the same time, if we we won't have them, we won't, we will not be able to do agriculture.
…Are concerned about the, we're concerned about the fact that if there is no temporary workers, there is no agriculture. So if one day it's not possible to, to have them...I don't know what's going to happen with the agriculture in Canada
« Quand j'ai réalisé que la Covid changerait la situation du tout au tout, j’ai eu peur que les travailleurs temporaires du Guatemala ne puissent pas venir au Canada. Nous étions bien stressés le printemps dernier en raison de cela. En fin de compte, ils ont pu venir au pays, ce qui nous a beaucoup soulagés, car au Québec, en fait au Canada, nous dépendons des travailleurs temporaires dans le secteur de l’agriculture. En l’absence de ces travailleurs temporaires, nous serions obligés de réduire sensiblement nos activités ce qui serait problématique pour nous qui participions au programme CSA aux termes duquel de nombreux clients paient à l'avance. Nous n’étions pas paniqués, mais nous nous demandions comment nous allions faire pour livrer la marchandise, car une chose est certaine, il nous fallait remplir le carnet de commandes. Alors comment faire sans les travailleurs temporaires ? »."
Chantale reflects on pandemic work / Ce que pense Chantale du travail pendant la pandémie
"...some of them, they were talking about that they are looking for, to see, to see more of their friends. Yeah, they were talking about that. More their friends, more, you know, their, their family. Some, yeah, some were talking about that...
... Because they, they, they don't, they don't visit each other. They don't visit their, their family. They don't visit their friends or, you know, same as us. So they, they say they are looking forward to, they are really looking forward about the end of the COVID for, to, to to be able to visit their their family, their, their friends, so. So they, they yeah, I would say sometimes they do talk about this and also they are, they are looking forward to, I mean, not wearing, wearing the mask because during the, during the time, the work, I mean, because they...they don't see, you know, the emotion of the other worker just next to, next to them.
It's, it's harder. So this is another. Yeah, I remember last year and some of the employees that were saying that, were saying "It's really bad to wear a mask every day and, because we can't see, you know, if the other one next to me is, is smiling or not or is laughing or is, is maybe sad or..." And so this is a major, major point. And yeah, they, and they were saying that they were missing the employees, the parties with the, the employees...
... because we, we, we stopped doing this..."
« ... Certains d'entre eux parlaient du fait qu'ils ne pouvaient plus fréquenter leurs amis. Déjà qu’ils étaient séparés de leur famille. Ils attendaient donc avec impatience la fin de la COVID pour pouvoir se rendre auprès de leur famille et de leurs amis. Ils avaient également hâte de ne plus avoir à porter un couvre-visage au travail, car celui-ci gênait les relations avec leurs collègues ne sachant pas si ceux-ci souriaient ou s’ils riaient ou encore s’ils étaient tristes ou pas. Les fêtes rassemblant les employés leur manquaient, ces fêtes que nous organisions pour favoriser les échanges mais qu’il nous a fallu interrompre... »
Pandemic workplace: Object for museum collection / Lieu de travail en cas de pandémie : Objet pour la collection du musée
The, this is quite general I would say, some there's, like there's lots of people that are really, really social are into that. Like, I'm thinking about my father-in-law, he's, he's so social, he likes to go out, he likes to, to see, to have visitors and to visit his, his kids. But now, you know, he's not doing anything about that. And he's quite, he's a bit depressing. You know, so.
So this is why I'm thinking that in the long term, you know, we will, we will have some problems, some mental, mental problem with, with regarding the COVID, maybe. So this is, one impact, and also with the environment. This isn't, this is, there is another in because there's lots of consumption of, of you know, with the, with the mask and everything that we need to, to do like, because now the rules is being changed, we can't use the material masks. We have to use, when we work, we have to use the blue ones...
..The medical one, and this is the only one that we have to use and we have, we have to change it every four hours...
... That's a lot of waste. This is the same rule at the school. My son is going to the high school and this is what they do, so the high school has to pay that.
This is, this is a lot of, there's lots of waste regarding that. And the other impact, that would be...they did, yeah, regarding health. Of course, because I do think that people, they are doing less exercise. So I I think, you know, this isn't another impact on the health because, you know, some, some, some people, you know, they keep, they keep doing exercise, they keep doing things on their own. But you know, some people they are, they are, they don't like to do that. They don't like to walk, they don't like to ski. They don't like to, to, to bike. So, so then they, they, they don't, they don't do lots of activities because they're used to, to go to the gym or to, to go to the other type of activities for them. So I, I do think...this is another, another impact the, the health.
« ... Je crois que les amis ne se voient plus comme avant en conséquence de quoi ils souffrent peut-être d’isolement.
C'est assez généralisé. Vous savez il y a beaucoup de gens qui sont vraiment des êtres sociaux. Je pense à mon beau-père qui aime beaucoup sortir, voir les gens, recevoir des visiteurs et rendre visite à ses enfants. Il ne peut plus en faire autant. Et il déprime…
C'est pourquoi je pense que nous risquons à long terme d’avoir des problèmes de santé mentale en raison de la Covid. Il y a aussi l’impact sur l'environnement de tous ces couvre-visage. Maintenant que les règles ont changé et qu’il faut éviter d’utiliser des couvre-visage en tissu, quoi faire avec tous ces couvre-visage bleus c’est-à-dire ces couvre-visage médicaux qu’il faut remplacer aux quatre heures ? Tant de gaspillage ! C'est comme ça aussi à l'école. Mon fils fréquente l’école secondaire et la règle est la même. C’est l’école qui doit payer pour tous ces couvre-visage.
Il y a aussi l’impact sur la santé des gens qui ne s’exercent peu ou plus. Certains continuent de faire de l'exercice de leur propre initiative mais d’autres n'aiment pas la marche, le ski, le vélo. C’est gens-là ne s’activent plus parce qu’ils ne se rendent plus au gymnase. »