Parent company seeking 'Nexus type of approval' to speed renewals for workers already in system
Tim Hortons and its parent company have lobbied the federal government for more than a year to loosen restrictions on the use of temporary foreign workers (TFWs) in its restaurants, according to a report.
In a letter sent to then‑immigration minister Marc Miller in May 2024, Tim Hortons argued that “the food service industry sector was disproportionately hard hit by the pandemic and continues to face unprecedented labour shortages,” CBC reported, citing documents and lobbying records it obtained through access‑to‑information laws.
The company’s request came after the government had already rolled back a pandemic‑era measure that had temporarily allowed employers to use up to 30 per cent TFWs in certain sectors in 2021, according to the report.
In late 2024, Ottawa further tightened the rules, reducing the cap to 10 per cent.
Tim Hortons parent company met with MPs
Despite that shift, Tim Hortons and parent company Restaurant Brands International (RBI) continued to press for more. According to the CBC report, the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada said company representatives met MPs from multiple parties, political staff and officials in several federal departments on Oct. 28, 2025, including staff in the Prime Minister’s Office.
Miller — who now serves as minister of Canadian Heritage — told CBC News the company “wanted a pledge to continue the visas of those employed.” He said he was not unsympathetic to the request but described it as “part of a larger discussion on how to manage the inflow and outflow.”
Another MP, who spoke to CBC on condition of anonymity, said RBI was seeking a “Nexus type of approval” to speed renewals for workers already in the system, likening it to the trusted‑traveller program run jointly by the Canada Border Services Agency and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Under current rules, foreign workers must apply to extend their work permits, and employers may need to resubmit Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs) to show they cannot fill jobs with Canadians or permanent residents.
Changing rules to TFW Program
The federal government has been making changes to the TFW Program, with several reports citing issues of employer abuse in the said program. In an address to the Liberal caucus in Edmonton in September, Prime Minister Mark Carney said that, moving forward, the TFWP “must have a focused approach that targets specific, strategic sectors and needs in specific regions,” reported CIC News.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has also called for the federal government to axe the TFW program.
According to a recent report, many firms aren’t using TFWs because Canadians are unavailable, but because these workers behave differently on the job. The study—published in The Canadian Journal of Economics and reported by the Vancouver Sun—noted that TFWs tend to work longer hours than comparable Canadian workers, are absent from work less often, and “put out more effort for lower earnings than domestic employees.”
TFW proves popular with employers
In the last three months of 2023, employers were approved to fill more than 81,000 positions through the program, reported The Globe and Mail, citing figures shared by the federal government. It was the largest quarter for approvals since Ottawa made several employer-friendly changes to the program in the spring of 2022, according to the report.
By April 1, 2025, more than 520 organizations had received funding to deliver settlement and resettlement programs and services across Canada, noted the federal government.
Meanwhile, the fourth quarter of 2023 TFW approvals pushed the total for that year to 240,000, up 7.5 per cent from 2022 and more than double what was permitted in 2018, the Globe and Mail previously noted.
Approximately one in 25 people working in Canada in 2021 were temporary foreign workers (4.1 per cent), up from one in 50 a decade earlier (1.9 per cent), according to Statistics Canada.
“The long-term viability of TFWs as a stable labour source depends on two factors: the number of workers who transition to PR and the percentage of those who continue to work in the sector after obtaining PR,” experts from StatCan previously said.
“This study found that recent TFW cohorts had higher rates of transition to PR compared with earlier cohorts, whereas recent PR policy changes may have had a positive impact on the transition rate. After transitioning to PR, TFWs holding health‑occupation‑specific work permits had higher industry retention rates in the sector than those who did not have health‑occupation‑specific work permits.”
