No company flaunts its Canadian credentials more than Tim Hortons. Marketing has transformed the coffee-and-doughnut colossus into a commercial embodiment of the virtues and values Canadians hold dear.

Yet the beloved icon has been a major beneficiary of a profound shift in immigration policy that some say is transforming the country’s labour market: Canada’s growing reliance on — some might say addiction to — temporary foreign workers.

The numbers are startling. In the past decade, the number of temporary foreign workers living in Canada has more than tripled.

As of last Dec. 1, more than 338,000 resided here. Canada admitted 213,516 temporary foreign workers in 2012 alone — by a large margin, the most ever. Between 2002 and 2011, the number of foreign students with work permits soared to 60,000 from just 6,800.

No company flaunts its Canadian credentials more than Tim Hortons. Marketing has transformed the coffee-and-doughnut colossus into a commercial embodiment of the virtues and values Canadians hold dear.

Yet the beloved icon has been a major beneficiary of a profound shift in immigration policy that some say is transforming the country’s labour market: Canada’s growing reliance on — some might say addiction to — temporary foreign workers.

The numbers are startling. In the past decade, the number of temporary foreign workers living in Canada has more than tripled.

As of last Dec. 1, more than 338,000 resided here. Canada admitted 213,516 temporary foreign workers in 2012 alone — by a large margin, the most ever. Between 2002 and 2011, the number of foreign students with work permits soared to 60,000 from just 6,800. Full article

Source: Ottawa Citizen, by Don Butler