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Government pushes employers to hire youth
Editorial by Christian Saint Cyr
National Director / Canadian Job Development Network
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On Monday mornings, I often stop at my local McDonald's and pick up a coffee before #MotivatingMondays. There appears to be no less than a dozen temporary foreign workers (TFWs) employed at this particular McDonalds.
We don't have recent data, but in 2014, roughly 4% of McDonald's 85,000+ employees in Canada were TFWs, with 268 of their 1,400+ restaurants utilizing the program. That is still 3,400 employees and data suggests it's a lot more today.
According to Open Council, the number of temporary foreign workers at food counters increased more than four thousand per cent (4,109) between 2016 and 2023.
Employers argue they need to hire TFWs because they cannot hire locally.
This wasn't a McDonalds at roadside in the middle of nowhere. This isn't an apple orchard 20 kilometers from the nearest town.
I live in a city with a population of 115,000 people, part of a larger city with 2.6 million people. In my city alone, there are 3,600 people looking for work right now. There are 1,400 young people between the ages of 15 and 24 looking for work.
In my community, the youth unemployment rate 13.8 per cent and local employers are saying they can't find anyone locally to take these jobs. Across the country, two out of every five job seekers are between the ages of 15 and 24.
Employers say they can't hire anyone and young people say they are applying for jobs and never getting a call. Someone is lying here. Many people are lying here.
Last week, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business came out and said that businesses will go out of business if they are not permitted to hire TFWs in communities with a higher unemployment rate.
In a CFIB survey of businesses who had turned to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) to meet their labour market needs, 57 per cent said they would have to scale back their growth plans if they could not retain or have access to foreign workers and 52 per cent would be unable to fill orders or render services. Nearly a quarter (24 per cent) would have to reduce their hours of operation and 18 per cent stated that it was very likely that they would have to close their operations.
More than 1.3 million work permits are set to expire by the end of 2026, threatening significant economic and labour challenges, according to the CFIB.
Some estimates show more than 300,000 work permits were due to expire by the end of March alone.
Do you actually think businesses would just close up shop rather than try to figure out a way to hire more people locally?
A McDonald’s franchise in Canada requires a minimum of $1 million in non-borrowed, personal funds to qualify, with total initial investments ranging from roughly $1.4 million to over $2.9 million CAD. The initial, non-refundable franchise fee alone is $45,000 for a 20-year term, with additional costs for equipment and rent.
McDonald's doesn't disclose their acceptance rate but some sources suggest the acceptance rate is less than one per cent. Whether it is a McDonald's franchise or your local auto shop, employers have a lot invested and a lot to lose.
I started my first job when I was 14, working at a local Greek restaurant. On my very first day, I was 45 minutes late and I proceeded to make a dozen other mistakes in the weeks to follow.
My employer did what most employers did in those days. He rolled his eyes, shouted a lot, swore at me in Greek, pushed me to do better and demonstrated a lot of patience. This is how employers used to train workers. They would get a lump of clay without work experience and unreasonable expectations and train them.
It's not that employers don't want to hire young people or other residents, they would just prefer to hire TFWs. They want people who will shut up and do their work, and not complain and not have anything else going on but what is expected of them. They would like someone who's just grateful to have a job.
Well, the federal government is coming in to try to push employers to reconsider hiring local residents, including young people.
As of April 1, 2026, employers applying for a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) under the low-wage stream of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program must advertise positions for a minimum of eight consecutive weeks — double the previous four-week requirement.
The advertisement must still occur within the three months before the LMIA application is submitted.
At least one of the three required recruitment activities must also remain ongoing until Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) issues a positive or negative LMIA decision.
For employers, the longer advertising window means more lead time is needed before an LMIA application can be filed. Employers who are planning to hire through the low-wage stream must now factor this extended timeline into their recruitment planning.
Alongside the new requirement, ESDC has also added "targeted outreach to youth" as an acceptable method of recruitment. The government lists five specific activities that can count toward this:
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Youth-focused job advertisements: Post job vacancies on youth-oriented platforms, such as Job Bank's youth section, provincial or territorial youth employment programs, and post-secondary career centers. Job ads should clearly encourage youth to apply.
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Collaboration with educational institutions: Partner with high schools, colleges, and universities to reach students and recent graduates through co-op placements, internships, career fairs, or on-campus recruitment.
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Participation in recognized youth employment programs: Take part in government-supported programs, such as Canada Summer Jobs or equivalent regional programs, that connect employers with youth.
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Community and non-profit engagement: Promote job vacancies through local community centers, youth organizations and employment support agencies that work with young job seekers.
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Digital and social media outreach: Advertise job opportunities on platforms popular with youth to reach a wider pool of potential candidates.
Whether an employer hires young people or not, moving forward, if an employer is even eligible, it's going to get a lot harder to hire TFWs.
Whether you work with youth, recent immigrants, those with disabilities, Indigenous Canadians, mature workers or any other population that is under-represented in our job market, there is going to be an opportunity to reach out to these employers and make an argument for inclusive hiring.
There are a lot of employers in the business community who argue for a 'laissez-faire' approach to the economy, a French phrase meaning "leave it alone." If employers can't find the workers they need, they'll raise wages, improve working conditions or bring up the skill-level of workers.
Temporary foreign workers is an 'intervention' in the labour market. It's not leaving it alone. It brings in an alternative that doesn't exist and it suppresses wages, drives part-time employment and makes jobs more precarious.
It also dampens innovation. If employers in the agriculture sector can't find workers, they'll turn to technology and innovation to make farms less reliant on people. This creates better skilled, higher wage job oppportunities.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not against having a Temporary Foreign Worker program. Employers in rural and remote communities have a genuine problem that can't be alliviated with local labour.
I also think there should be a pathway to Canada for minimally skilled individuals. Outside our Indigenous population, we are a nation of immigrants and that shouldn't be exclusively reserved for the highly educated, the wealthy and individuals who's skills happen to be in demand at that moment.
In job development, I don't believe our job is to shame employers or convince them to do the 'right thing'. I just think there is enormous benefit in hiring the indivdiuals we represent and if regulations restricting the use of TFWs make this argument a little easier, I'm all in favour of it.
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We’ll be discussing that benefits that might come from changes to immigration at our #MotivatingMondays meeting of the Canadian Job Development Network, Monday April 13th at 8:30am Pacific; 9:30am Mountain; 10:30am Central; 11:30am Eastern; 12:30pm Atlantic and at 1pm in Newfoundland.
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On the morning of Monday April 13th 'Click this Link' to join the session.
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To learn more, email Christian Saint Cyr, at: csaintcyr@labourmarketonline.com
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