'Pitting so-called local workers against temporary foreign workers is a red herring,' says migrant advocate
Tim Hortons is facing backlash from migrant worker advocates after announcing it will hire 10,000 "new local team members" and declaring that lobbying for expanded access to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) is "no longer necessary.”
The campaign, which runs across television, digital, and in-restaurant channels, is tied to plans to open 80 new locations across Canada this year. Of the chain's roughly 110,000 employees, about 4,000 currently hold positions under the TFWP — a number the company says has declined steadily since 2024.
But advocates say the campaign's framing does more harm than good. Syed Hussan, co-executive director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, told Broadview the initiative risks setting workers against one another.
"Pitting so-called local workers against temporary foreign workers is a red herring. Every worker deserves real rights and protections, regardless of nationality," he said.
Hussan also challenged the company's broader labour record: "Tim Hortons is one of the leading lobbyists against increases to minimum wage, which is the number one reason for our affordability crisis. These people's wages are too low, and what [their] model is doing is actually one of the key actors responsible for creating the affordability crisis, and it's now using the anti-migrant record as a way to excuse itself."
Linking youth unemployment to migrant jobs
Rena Namago, refugee and migrant rights policy officer at Citizens for Public Justice in Ottawa, told Broadview the announcement risks reinforcing a misleading narrative.
"We need to challenge this framing of youth unemployment because of migrants taking jobs. It's not because of competition with migrants — migrants were brought in because that problem was already there."
She added that the stakes for migrant workers are particularly high: "If they lose their job, they lose their status, their immigration status, so they could face deportation."
The announcement comes as Canada's youth unemployment rate rose to more than 14 per cent in April, according to Statistics Canada, with some analysts describing the figures as unusually high outside of a recession, Broadview noted.
Overhaul needed: TFWP
Rosemary Quinsey, a national representative of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, told Broadview that the broader program needs an overhaul.
"In many cases, there is nothing 'temporary' about these jobs, so in addition to an overhauled TFWP, migrant workers must also have access to permanent residence pathways," she said.
Broadview reported it reached out to Tim Hortons for comment but did not hear back by the time of publication.
