Industry warns of long lineups or closures due to TFW program suspension

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – As Federal Employment Minister Jason Kenney calls for higher wages, Canada’s restaurant industry is warning of long lineups or even closures at restaurants that can’t use the Temporary Foreign Workers program.

An industry group has seen this scenario before, in the mid-2000s in Alberta when some restaurants actually closed.

“Long lineups out doors, we had people curtailing their hours of operations, we had people shutting down parts of their operaion,” lists Joyce Reynolds of Restaurants Canada.

She says the industry is not trying to dodge the law of supply and demand, especially in resource-rich regions. “People from the oil patch come in and scoop up our employees and pay them up to $30 an hour.”

Reynolds tells us restaurant customers are “price-resistant.”

“If we were able to easily pass on price increases to customers, we probably wouldn’t have the really skinny margins that we have in our industry,” she insists.

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