Is the solution to our labour shortage more foreign workers? Businesses say yes, others say it’s a way to fill vacancies without raising wages

As worker shortages persist and government subsidies approach their end, a growing number of industry groups — largely in food services — are asking the federal government to let them host more temporary foreign workers to fill jobs.
Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program has long been used as a controversial work-around for low-wage businesses to keep job vacancies low without raising wages. The program offers temporary, closed employment permits to a capped number of foreign workers who occupy low-skilled jobs in sectors where job vacancies are high, before returning to their country of origin.
The latest labour-force survey shows that employment in food services is 14.8 per cent below its pre-pandemic level, amounting to 180,000 workers who left their food-service positions in February 2020 and never returned.
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