Opposition parties and labour groups are calling on the government to improve farm workers safety.

The Alberta NDP and the Alberta Federation of Labour want to know why the government stopped reporting farm fatalities.

“Alberta is far behind the rest of Canada in regards to farm workers safety,” says NDP agriculture critic David Eggen. “We’re finding it particular shocking because this year the provincial government has chosen to stop gathering information on statistics on farm workers in Alberta.”

Eggen says the government should extend occupational health and safety regulations to farmer workers. During her spring election campaign, Premier Redford promised to extend health and safety regulations to farmer workers.

Liberal MLA David Swann says there are an average of 30 farm deaths a year over the last 20 years.

i880 News, Tues Aug 21 2012