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Cypress Hills-Grasslands MP David Anderson says the Temporary Foreign Worker program is working despite recent reports of employers abusing the program.

This week, two waitresses said they were fired from a restaurant in Weyburn last month and replaced with foreign staff, prompting public criticism from labour groups and the general public, and a review of the program. Earlier, a similar story surfaced from Victoria, BC, where employees at three franchised McDonald's restaurants alleged that foreign workers were given priority work status and, in some cases, took their jobs.

"It's clear this program has been an important program in Western Canada, particularly as we try to fill labour market needs, but it's also just as clear that we're not going to tolerate abuses of the system," Anderson said. "These reports will be investigated. Certainly, we do not want employers taking advantage of the program. The objective is to make sure that Canadians are hired first, and then secondly, the foreign workers fill those gaps where we have issues."

He says some of the measures they've taken include on-site inspections, increasing financial penalties against non-compliant employers, and barring companies who are found to be abusing the program.

Anderson says the Temporary Foreign Worker program has been used successfully at a number of Swift Current and area businesses to help them meet labour challenges.

"Certainly, we've had some good success stories," he added. "Honey Bee Manufacturing in Frontier was just in the news as a company that was able to use this program and use it significantly in the face of not being able to fill their labour requirements the way they wanted... "I don't think you have to go very far in the community to see where temporary foreign workers have come and served us well, and certainly some of those folks are now becoming Canadian citizens.

"The reality is we want the program to make sure it is working," Anderson said. "We want Canadians to have first access to those jobs, and then to be able to fill those gaps with folks coming from other countries, so we're going to continue to work on the program and make sure that it works that way. Obviously, if people are abusing it, we're going to hold them accountable."

Federal Employment Minister Jason Kenney also said this week they will pursue criminal charges against companies who violate the program.

Meanwhile, the owners of the Weyburn restaurant at the centre of this controversy released a statement on Wednesday, saying their employees were laid off as part of a restructuring of their hours of operation, and were all offered their jobs back with new hours. They added some employees who wanted more hours or were unhappy with the changes chose not to return.

McDonald's Canada also announced on Wednesday they will be putting their participation in the Temporary Foreign Worker program on hold while they conduct a third-party audit on their use of foreign workers.