The Quebec government is amending Bill 19 to allow children under the age of 14 to work in agricultural settings in specific circumstances.
According to CBC News, pre-teens would be able to work for agricultural businesses that have no more than 10 employees. This law would also limit the number of hours teens aged 16 and under can work in a week during the school year to 17.
The law would encourage kids to take on "light manual labor to harvest fruits or vegetables, take care of animals, or tend the soil," as per the amendment.
Many employers have been asking for this as they have been struggling to find employees to do the vacant jobs.
Despite the government moving forward with the law, many are concerned about the risk of injury on the job. A previous version of the law would have limited the work to babysitting, day camps, and jobs in family-owned businesses that employ fewer than 10 people.
The concerns land squarely on the use of machinery which accounts for 60 per cent of child deaths in the workplace, according to the National Institute of Public Health.
