Doubts over Tim Hortons' promise to hire 10,000 new "local employees"
After facing backlash over its reliance on temporary foreign workers, Tim Hortons announced it would fill 10,000 new positions with “local employees.”
Author: Quinn Patrick
Tim Hortons says it will scale back its use of the Temporary Foreign Worker program and hire 10,000 Canadians instead, as scrutiny grows over foreign worker hiring in the restaurant sector.
The campaign coincided with an announcement on Monday that the coffee chain plans to open 80 new restaurants by the end of this year.
“Tims restaurant owners don’t discriminate in their local hiring – anyone entitled to work in Canada is welcome to work at their restaurants,” wrote the company in a press release.
“This includes Canadian students, international students, people with disabilities, mature workers, Indigenous people, new Canadians and members of the local community of all ages – always with the aim to hire locally every time they can in order to serve guests with excellence at every Tims, every time.”
While the company had previously lobbied Ottawa for increased access to the TFWP, it now says that “with high youth unemployment nationally, lobbying for expanded access is no longer necessary.”
However, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner said that claim is false and that Tim Hortons continues to seek access to the program.
“I read the articles and the statement that that chain made, and they’re still asking for temporary foreign workers,” Rempel Garner told reporters on Monday. “We know that there is a youth job crisis. We know that there are a lot of Canadians who are out of work. What we’ve been pushing the government for is better labour mobility strategies, skills training to make it easy to facilitate Canadians to move to where the jobs are.”
She added that the Conservatives are calling for the “abolition of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program” to be replaced with a “standalone program for seasonal agricultural labour that’s legitimately hard to fill.”
The change in hiring strategy from Tim Hortons also follows an announcement from Dunkin’ Donuts, a former U.S. competitor, announcing plans to return to Canada earlier this month.
Dunkin’ Donuts CEO Peter Mammas said he can open between “600 to 700” locations in Canada, including nearly 200 in Quebec, between this year and the end of 2027.
Meanwhile, Tim Hortons already has 4,000 locations across Canada and remains the largest franchise in the country, with more restaurants per capita than any other brand worldwide.
“Of the approximately 110,000 team members across the Tim Hortons system, we estimate roughly 4,000 team members hold positions under the Temporary Foreign Worker program – representing approximately 3.6 per cent of all restaurant roles,” reads the company statement.
“These are positions in communities where restaurant owners faced documented labour shortages and went through the full government approval process before hiring. Restaurant owners understand the need for continued rigour and scrutiny for any new temporary foreign worker applications.”