McDonald’s franchise owner backs foreign worker program changes for staffing stability

Brian Boresky, a McDonald’s owner-operator in Fort St. John, pushed local officials to back changes to Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker program, saying the fight is really about whether restaurants can keep enough people on the schedule to stay open and reliable.

In a letter to city council, Boresky asked officials to help persuade Premier David Eby and Jobs Minister Ravi Kahlon to opt in to the federal change. The request matters well beyond immigration policy: in a store like McDonald’s, a tighter labour pool can mean fewer hands for late-night, weekend and short-notice shifts, more overtime for managers and more pressure on crews already covering gaps.

Ottawa announced on March 13 that rural employers in eligible regions could temporarily raise their share of low-wage temporary foreign workers from 10% to 15% if a province or territory requests it. The move could start as early as April 1 and last until March 31, 2027. The government said the program is meant to help employers hire foreign workers when qualified Canadians are not available, while keeping Canadians first in line for jobs. It also said Temporary Foreign Worker Program participants represent about 1% of Canada’s workforce.

For franchise owners, the concern is not abstract. McDonald’s restaurants in smaller labour markets often depend on a mix of students, part-time workers and temporary foreign workers to cover every daypart, especially when recruiting is hardest. When those hires are difficult to secure, the pressure moves fast to the floor: schedules become less predictable, existing employees pick up extra shifts, training gets stretched and service can slip when callouts hit.

Restaurants Canada has argued that the rural cap increase is a stopgap that provinces should adopt quickly. The group said foodservice employs more than 1.2 million people in Canada, that 39% of those workers are youth, that there are 70,000 vacant foodservice jobs nationwide and that temporary foreign workers make up about 3% of the foodservice workforce. It said the workers are often used to fill critical gaps, including overnights and skilled roles such as cooks and chefs.

The pressure is especially visible in northeast British Columbia. CBC reported that Fort St. John and Dawson Creek city councils sent letters to Eby and Kahlon asking the province to opt in to the expansion. Fort St. John and District Chamber of Commerce executive director Tiffany Hetenyi said the current cap is “drastically limiting” local businesses and warned of major staffing disruption if the policy is not adopted. British Columbia said it was not consulted before the federal announcement and is reviewing the change before deciding whether to participate.

That leaves McDonald’s franchise operators in the middle of a broader labour fight that is being felt at the store level, where every unfilled shift shows up as longer hours for the crew already there and a tougher test of whether the restaurant can keep its doors open on time and the line moving.