Owners of Wendy's, a sushi shop and Tahini's on ending temporary foreign worker program

Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre is pushing to scrap the temporary foreign worker program, but some business owners in the London area say ending the program outright is not the answer.

Canadian businesses in some sectors are currently eligible to hire foreign workers, if they can show that no Canadian citizen or permanent resident is willing or able to do the job.

The program peaked last year at around 190,000 work permit holders, but just over 33,000 new temporary foreign workers have arrived since January, after the federal government put new restrictions on the program.

Poilievre called on Ottawa this week to axe the program entirely, saying the labour market is flooded with cheap labour that makes it harder for young Canadians to find work. He also proposed creating a new program specifically for agricultural businesses facing a shortage of workers, despite Canada already running a separate immigration stream for farm workers.

"I agree with Mr. Poilievre. We should not be ever putting somebody into a job where a Canadian youth could be getting it," Joe Preston, the mayor of St. Thomas and former Conservative Member of Parliament, said. "But I'm not sure that we can be absolute on something like TFWs."

Preston owns a Wendy's franchise, and is currently in the process of opening two more. He said he's never hired a worker through the program, instead he finds ways to retain his current employees.

"Sometimes it means offering wages that are slightly higher, offering benefits and other things to make you more of the employer of choice," he said.

Preston admits, in his role as mayor, that he's seen how the temporary foreign worker program has its place in some sectors. He said he would still like to see companies training Canadians to do the jobs to fill the need.

While farm and greenhouse workers are the most common jobs for foreign workers in the program, fast food chains and restaurants are a major source of demand.

"Right now, the restaurant industry is dominated by a lot of foreign workers," Omar Hamam, CEO of the London-based chain Tahini's, said.

Tahini's, like many fast-food businesses, hires foreign labour, Hamam explained, and he believes restaurants would struggle without them.

The same sentiment was expressed by business owners running specialized restaurants where filling jobs with domestic labour can be especially tricky.

Sushi chefs, for example, are few and far between in Canada, according to Di Shao, owner of Sushi Galore. Shao often hires local workers for front-of-house jobs, like serving, but the kitchen staff who prepare the sushi are often hired through the temporary foreign workers program.

Shao said he's even hired and trained local workers for these jobs when there were applicants, but they tended to give up and quit after the first few weeks.

"They know it's not an easy job, it's very tiring," he said. "They would rather go be a server and make extra money from tips than work in the kitchen."

Increasing wages to attract workers is not an option either, he said, explaining that between minimum wage increases, rising food costs and other operating expenses, restaurants are struggling.

"Even though people feel like it's not enough because the price of everything is going up, honestly, for small businesses, it's been kind of maxed."