Local restaurants could suffer under scaled back foreign worker rules
PRINCE GEORGE – Changes to the Federal Government’s Temporary Foreign Workers program went into effect today, which will restrict the amount of foreign workers a business can bring in. These cutbacks could cause headaches for the province’s restaurant industry moving forward, as restaurant owners and experts say they rely on foreign skilled workers.
“As an industry, we always want to hire Canadians first, but we don’t have many Canadians to hire, and that’s a fact. We don’t have a lot of kids going to culinary school wanting to become cooks and chefs. So despite what the Prime Minister says about ‘hire Canadians,’ we’d love to, but there’s no Canadians to hire,” said President of the BC Restaurant and Food Services Association Ian Tostenson.