Tim Hortons announced that it will reduce its reliance on the federal Temporary Foreign Worker Program to hire staff, with plans to recruit 10,000 local workers as it expands and opens new restaurants across Canada.
The Canadian coffee giant said in a statement Monday that during the pandemic, while there were “acute labour shortages,” it encouraged the federal government to increase access to the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program, and “lobbied them to maintain greater access when they announced plans to limit applications.”
The company currently employs some 4,000 temporary foreign workers, representing about 3.6 per cent of all restaurant roles. About 45 per cent of staff are ages 15 to 24.
Economist Jim Stanford, director of the think tank Centre for Future Work, said Tim Hortons’ announcement is “driven by a combination of necessity and opportunity rather than morality,” following cuts to the TFW program.
Originally designed to fill jobs Canadians could not or would not take — including agricultural workers, domestic workers and some highly skilled jobs — Canada’s TFW program during the height of the pandemic was increasingly used to provide staff for restaurants and fast food chains, including at Tim Hortons, McDonald’s, A&W, Pizza Hut and Domino’s Pizza franchises.
Many employers have grown accustomed to the continuous supply of TFWs and international students to fill low-wage jobs in fast-food restaurants, retail, warehouses, factories and gig work.
The number of foreign workers in Canada’s $100 billion food service sector shot up by more than 4,000 per cent between 2016 and 2023.
In 2024, amid declining public support for immigration, the Trudeau government announced it would reduce the number of low-wage temporary foreign workers that businesses are able to hire.
Employers in most sectors are now limited to hiring a maximum of 10 per cent of their workforce from the TFW program, down from 20 per cent. As a result, some companies feared they would lose employees.
Tim Hortons lobbied the government to lift the cap on temporary foreign workers for most of 2024-25, according to federal lobbying records.
But in Monday’s statement, the company cited high youth unemployment across the country, saying that “lobbying for expanded access is no longer necessary.”
Tim Hortons’ parent company, Restaurant Brands International, said in an email that its four brands, including Burger King, Popeyes and Firehouse Subs, “are making the same commitment on lobbying” and it has not conducted any lobbying since last year.
The slower job market has disproportionately weighed on young people. Youth unemployment rose to 14.3 per cent in April, according to Statistics Canada data, more than double the current overall unemployment rate of 6.9 per cent.
The announcement comes shortly after Dunkin’ Donuts said it will be expanding into the Canadian market — long dominated by Tim Hortons and McDonald’s — with plans to open hundreds of stores across the country.
Tim Hortons announced Friday that Canadian restaurant owners are investing $270 million, while the corporation is supplying an additional $130 million, in a plan to build and renovate 480 restaurants across the country.
While unemployment remains high, industry groups argue that labour shortages persist, especially in rural areas where aging populations, declining birth rates and limited local labour pools make hiring increasingly difficult. But economists and labour advocates have long argued that employers’ continued reliance on migrant workers highlights Canada’s troubling dependence on labour that is temporary and can be exploitable, rather than implementing changes to business models like better wages and working conditions.
Wages in accommodation and food services averaged $18.50 an hour according to data from Statistics Canada, compared to the economy-wide average of $29.25.
“This is a sign that the reduction in TFW numbers is forcing companies to think about their long-run workforce development strategies rather than turning to migrant workers as a quick fix,” said Stanford of the Centre for Future Work.
But he added that the weakening labour market also means companies like Tim Hortons can replace migrant workers with young Canadians willing to work for low wages.
Tim Hortons’ attempt to frame the shift as a response to high youth unemployment “seems like a pretty opportunistic argument,” he said.
Migrant workers whose status is tied to a single employer often fear speaking out about low wages and poor conditions, creating a power imbalance that benefits employers seeking a compliant workforce. The UN’s special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery has called Canada’s TFW program “a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery,” stressing that granting migrant workers permanent resident status is necessary to end ongoing exploitation.
Tim Hortons’ parent company Restaurant Brands International said in an email that all its four brands including Burger King, Popeyes and Firehouse Subs “are making the same commitment on lobbying” and said they have not conducted any lobbying since last year.
