Customers won’t be able to pick up a coffee at Tim Hortons overnight, as more temporary foreign workers leave Fort McMurray.
The three locations in the city already lost 31 workers since the federal government introduced reforms to the program on June 20, 2014. Local Operator Wayne Bigelow says another seven employees will be boarding planes out of the country soon, because their employment status isn’t getting renewed. He wrote a letter to MLA Don Scott, pleading with the government to push for changes.
“We already stopped building a new store being built at the airport, as we have no one to work it. It sits there and not completed at this time,” writes Bigelow.
Service changes being considered include closing the stores from 10 p.m. – 5 a.m, closing a drive thru when needed and getting rid of the community cruiser for social profit events. Tim Hortons has about 200 staff members in the city, with 75 under the TFW program. Bigelow notes that he’s increased wages 20 per cent in the last three years, offered fully furnished staff housing and covered healthcare bills, and exhausted all recruiting strategies. He doesn’t want the federal government to take a broad stroke approach to the program.
“My analogy is if 500 cars are going down the freeway and 20 of them are speeding would it make sense to take all the cars off the road or focus on the violators. We are not all bad employers abusing the system but [it] seems like we are being punished for actions of a few,” state Bigelow.
He wants Ottawa to consider sectors with high unemployment, exempt regions from a cap to allow TFWs to work at any location, and extend work permits from one to two years. Bigelow is also hoping for changes to immigration because he’s limited to only nominating one employee per restaurant for permanent citizenship. All three applicants were denied this year.
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In June. the federal government lifted a moratorium on using the workers in the fast food industry and announced reforms. It introduced a cap on the number of foreign worker hires, a tougher screening process, checking on workplaces that use TFWs more, and fines of up to $100,000 for businesses who abuse the program.
In July, federal employment minister Jason Kenney said there could be some exemptions for the overhaul. Kenney said he would consider changes for areas with very low levels of unemployment, in regions of high unemployment. Fort McMurray is part of the Northern Alberta region, where the unemployment rate is more than seven percent.
At the time, Kenny said the overall goal won’t change; making sure employers don’t use TFWs as a cheap source of labour to replace Canadians.
