SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Local restaurant owners are touting the merits of the maligned temporary foreign worker program, saying it helps them retain staff.

Tim Hortons is one of several businesses that have responded to the controversy surrounding the recent suspension of Canada’s temporary foreign workers program. - Walter Strong/NNSL photo

Federal minister of employment Jason Kenney placed a moratorium on the restaurant industry’s access to Employment and Social Development Canada’s temporary foreign workers program last week.

The report did not provide statistics for the NWT, but according to a June 2012 HRSDC document 61 NWT businesses, both restaurant and other businesses, had received labour market opinions (LMO) under the federal temporary foreign worker program as of that date.

The current suspension only applies to the restaurant industry, and does not affect those now working under the program.

Ranilo Ramirez, franchise owner of the downtown Subway, said that he has one employee under the program.

“The program itself is very useful,” Ramirez said. “There is no immediate impact, but I’m concerned over the long run.”

Finding people in Yellowknife isn’t hard, Ramirez said, but getting them to stay on for long after being trained is another story.

“I’ve had people who would only work for three weeks or a month after three weeks of training,” Ramirez said. “It’s tough because it costs money to train people. You have a full-time employee training a new one. You’re paying for an extra employee (during training), and then in a month or so they’re gone.”

A worker under the program likely means two years of stable employment.

“It’s not a glamorous job,” Ramirez said. “People don’t want to stay long, but as a business owner, we need people.”

The owner of the Yellowknife Tim Hortons referred questions to a media handler, Olga Petrycki. She told the Yellowknifer that approximately five per cent of its national workforce are employees under the temporary foreign workers program.

In a press release, the company stated that it “applauded” the government’s efforts to “strengthen Canadian labour markets and the temporary foreign worker program”, but “believe(s) suspending access to responsible users of the program is not an answer to critical labour shortages faced in some markets.”

Petrycki said that it is too soon to evaluate the impact the suspension could have on the franchise.

Scott Hinze, manager of the Yellowknife Boston Pizza, said the location will have work opportunities this summer, but will look for locals to fill those positions.

“We are currently hiring for a few different positions,” Hinze said. “We always look to offer local residents the opportunity to join the Boston Pizza team and we’ll take that approach with these positions.”

Northern Territories Federation of Labour president Mary Lou Cherwaty said that she and the NTFL commend the move to suspend the program.

“I think it’s about time,” Cherwaty said. “There are many documented abuses in the program. McDonald’s has had their name splashed all over, but it certainly isn’t isolated to that business.”

Cherwaty’s concerns extend beyond the question of labour supply and demand. Having workers, she said, essentially indentured to an employer as they are under the temporary foreign workers program, can create situations where human rights abuses can arise.

The owner of two Tim Hortons franchises -- one in Fernie, B.C., and one in Blairmore, AB -- saw his franchises taken from him in the fallout from allegations, as yet unproven-in-court, that the owner was clawing back wages from some temporary foreign workers.

“The (temporary foreign) workers are afraid,” Cherwaty said. “They’re tied to one place. If they speak out or talk about abuse, they’re in fear of being shipped home.”

It is not known how long the moratorium on hiring restaurant workers under the temporary foreign worker program will last.

But Cherwaty said the NTFL would like to see the moratorium not only made permanent, but extended beyond its current limited scope.

“It’s an awful program,” she said. “We’d like to see the low-skilled stream of the temporary foreign worker program cancelled.”