Small towns and temporary foreign workers

On any given day in a small town, restaurants should be busy. Orders coming in. People being served. The steady rhythm of a place that’s part of the community.

Instead, more and more locations are running below capacity; not because customers aren’t there, but because there aren’t enough staff.

This is the reality in many rural and tourism communities across Canada.

Recently, Ottawa took a small but important step to begin to address it.

The federal government announced a temporary increase in the cap on temporary foreign workers (TFWs) for rural regions facing acute labour shortages from 10 per cent to 15 per cent of a business’ total staff. After two years of tightening immigration rules, this is a notable shift, and an acknowledgment that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work in a country as large as Canada.

But this change only matters if provinces act on it.

Provinces now have the ability to request these increased caps for priority sectors in eligible regions. For many communities, that decision will determine whether local businesses can stay open.

Restaurants need to be part of that conversation.

The food-service industry is Canada’s fourth-largest employer, and third-largest in some provinces. Many Canadians’ first job is in a restaurant. Nearly 500,000 young people — about two-fifths of the industry’s total workforce — work in restaurants today.

Restaurants do more than serve meals. They support tourism, anchor main streets, and buy billions of dollars in local food and beverage products each year. They are a significant part of the economic and social fabric of our communities.

But restaurants cannot operate without staff.

In many parts of the country, Canadians are simply not available to fill local job vacancies. Rural populations are aging. Young people are leaving for school and work in larger centres. Restaurants are competing for limited workers with other sectors.

Food service has seen the second-highest wage growth of any sector since 2021, yet many positions remain unfilled. Restaurants depend on full teams across every part of the operation. When too many positions sit empty, the whole business struggles.

This is where temporary foreign workers play a role, and where the political debate often misses the mark.

Only three per cent of restaurant workers nationally are TFWs, but they are an essential part of the communities where they are employed.

Hiring through the TFW program is neither easy nor cheap, navigating a complex and costly federal process. Employers must demonstrate that no Canadians are available, pay at or above the government-set median wage for the role and region, which is at least minimum wage and often higher. It is a last resort.

When restaurants can’t fill key roles, they have to make difficult decisions. They may cut hours, reduce service, or close entirely.

When that happens, Canadian workers lose shifts or jobs. Local suppliers lose customers. Communities lose gathering places. Tourism experience is impacted.

In short, the economy suffers.

Over time, these places become less attractive to visitors, businesses, and young families. What starts as a labour shortage becomes something much bigger, a stagnating community and a decline in its residents’ quality of life.

Temporary foreign workers are not a substitute for a long-term workforce strategy, and they shouldn’t be. Canada needs to invest in training, support youth employment, and build stronger, more strategic immigration pathways for smaller communities, and rural and tourism regions, including opportunities for workers to transition to permanent residency.

But none of those solutions will help a restaurant that cannot find staff right now. For that, access to temporary foreign workers remains essential. The federal government has opened the door. Now provinces need to step through it, by requesting increased caps where they are needed and ensuring that sectors like food service are included.

This is not about expanding immigration broadly. It is about responding strategically to clear, local realities. In many rural communities, the choice isn’t between hiring a Canadian or a temporary foreign worker. It’s between hiring a temporary foreign worker or not hiring anyone at all.

Canada’s immigration system needs to be better calibrated. The federal government’s announcement was a step in that direction.

Now it’s up to provinces to make it count.

» Kelly Higginson is president and CEO at Restaurants Canada. This column was first published in the Winnipeg Free Press.