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“The prime minister has had this figured out for some time but why, in the six years the minister has been taking care of the program, has he never figured it out?”

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Kenney replied with what’s becoming a common refrain.

“If and when there are abuses, we act clearly and quickly,” he said, referring to the temporary ban he placed on restaurants last week preventing them from accessing the temporary foreign worker program.

“We are about to come out with another phase of further reforms to ensure that Canadians always and everywhere get the first crack at available jobs, and that the program is only used as a limited and last resort by employers.”

What a difference a few months makes.

In January, Kenney pledged another round of reforms as employers and trade associations bemoaned the procedural red tape and lengthy delays they say resulted from rule changes enacted a year ago. That initial crackdown came after the Royal

Bank of Canada found itself in hot water for replacing Canadian staff with temporary foreign workers.

Kenney suggested those changes, originally expected this month, could include a limited fast track for workers in high-demand professions in regions of the country with low unemployment.

But in the face of more allegations about employers, most of them fast-food restaurants, Kenney is sounding a different tone. His office has been inundated with complaints to its tiplines in recent weeks, employment ministry officials say, and the overwhelming majority of them involve restaurants.