Rural Ontario businesses caught between federal policy and provincial dithering

Dale Fortes has built a business on certainty.

Since 2009, he has run the Boston Pizza in Fort Frances, Ont. and grown it into a stable employer of more than 100 people. Now he is betting nearly $4 million on a second location in Dryden, an hour’s drive away.

But there is one thing he cannot control: The clocks on his workers’ permits.

All 10 of his temporary foreign workers — cooks, kitchen staff and front-of-house staff — hold work permits that expire within the next four months. A year ago, when they arrived, there were clear pathways for them to extend their stay and eventually apply for permanent residence.

In the past couple of years, those routes have narrowed for food-service workers. Fortes doesn’t know if he will be able to keep them, renew their permits, or fill the roles they leave behind.

“Had I known that all of those things would change as quickly as they have changed, I probably wouldn’t have made that investment in Dryden,” he said.

Fortes’s situation is the direct result of a provincial decision made last June.

The federal government offered rural employers across Canada temporary relief from its cap on low-wage temporary foreign workers last March. Provinces could let employers retain their existing workers and raise the cap from 10 to 15 per cent until March 31, 2027.

Several provinces accepted, though some, like British Columbia, took only the retention measure. According to Ontario Labour Minister David Piccini, Ontario declined both options in June, 2026.

By refusing both measures, Ontario left rural employers without the stability other provinces have. The impact is now reverberating through small towns across northwestern Ontario, where local labour pools are too small — and too old — to fill service-sector jobs.

Sarah Noonan, a third-generation owner of a lakeside hotel and restaurant in Fort Frances, employs foreign workers across multiple departments and is now above the allowed 10 per cent federal cap.

She said she cannot count on renewing their permits. “Why can’t a renewal be almost a guarantee?” she said.

“They’ve lived here for two years. They brought their family, their children are in school in our local schools.”

As Fortes scrambles, another case is already in court. M.G.B. Ventures Inc., which operated six Tim Hortons restaurants across eastern Ontario is in insolvency proceedings.

In its court filing, the company names the federal restrictions on temporary foreign workers as a contributing factor to its financial troubles. At one of its restaurants. in Alexandria, Ont., temporary foreign workers make up 19 of 23 staff. At Dunvegan, 15 of 25 staff are foreign workers.

Court documents list other causes for the company’s financial trouble: Tax arrears totalling $1.6 million; pandemic-era debt; lost construction financing for one location; and rising interest rates.

But the company’s statement clearly says that the government’s crackdown on foreign labour reduced access to the workers it needed. M.G.B. plans to sell at least three of its six restaurants. The company’s deadline to file a formal proposal to creditors is Nov. 9, 2026.

Fortes, who owns the Boston Pizza restaurants, said the changes in foreign workers rules came as a shock. His operating partner at the Dryden location is a man who arrived on a temporary work permit, proved himself essential to the business and became a permanent resident. To Fortes, this is proof that the system worked, and that convinced him that the expansion was viable.

Now he’s watching other business owners scramble.

Fortes has been advertising to fill some positions for more than a year. When applicants come for interviews, he said they lack basic work experience.

In rural communities, there are fewer cooks who have worked in professional kitchens and fewer servers trained in full-service dining. Training takes time and money that rural employers often can’t afford to spend on jobs that pay minimum wage. Fortes said he recruits through every channel available — social media, employment agencies, word of mouth — but there are not enough experienced applicants.

The Rural Community Immigration Pilot, which was supposed to provide a route to permanent residence for temporary foreign workers in smaller communities, no longer covers fast-food and counter-service restaurants in the Thunder Bay region. It only covers employers within the Thunder Bay census area, which excludes Fort Frances and Dryden.

For workers hired by restaurants in those towns, the main pathway to stay has narrowed to the redesigned Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program, announced in July 2026. This program expands access to permanent residence for workers in Training, Education, Experience and Responsibility (TEER) 4 and 5 occupations — which cover entry and semi-skilled roles — and lowers the revenue thresholds that rural employers must meet to qualify.

But processing times remain unclear, employers say, and those interviewed by New Canadian Media said they didn’t have confidence that the workforce priority stream under Ontario’s nominee program would help before their workers’ permits expired.

If their permits do expire, the workers must leave the country or change employers, which often means starting from the beginning of their permanent-residence application. Families may be separated, and the communities lose their experience and training. And the businesses lose staff they trained and integrated into their operations.

Ontario’s labour minister justified the province’s decision by saying the Temporary Foreign Worker Program “has had a clear and damaging impact on opportunities for Ontario workers,” particularly young people.

“Our focus should be on helping them succeed before expanding access to temporary foreign labour,” Piccinie wrote in a July 2026 announcement.

Rick Dumas, president of the Northern Ontario Municipal Association, which represents 37 municipalities across northwestern Ontario, said the province’s rationale does not reflect regional reality.

“In southern Ontario, they do have a higher rate of unemployment for youth, but we need them in the north west, ” Dumas said.

He said the region’s demographic challenges — delayed childbearing and smaller families — means there simply aren’t enough young people to fill jobs.

Copyright 2026, New Canadian Media. All rights reserved.

Shilpashree Jagannathan, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, New Canadian Media.