With six Chick-fil-A restaurants in Canada, the food chain is set to triple its Canadian footprint by 2025 with 20 new locations opening across Ontario and Alberta, including one in Barrie.
Construction of the local restaurant is already underway in the northeast corner of Bayfield and Livingstone streets, inside the Georgian Mall parking lot.
Chick-fil-A public affairs manager Bryan Malenius told BarrieToday that the new restaurant is set to open “in early 2023."
Malenius said each Chick-fil-A location is owned by a local operator “with a personal involvement in their business.”
Chick-fil-A made headlines in recent years when owner Dan Cathy said on a radio show in 2012: "I think we are inviting God's judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, 'We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage'.”
Many LGBTQ+ have protested the chain since.
There is no word yet on a job fair, but Malenius said each operator handles the hiring of their employees and news of any hiring events would be made when the time comes.
Other new locations in Ontario include Vaughan with additional future locations expected at Toronto Eaton Centre, Square One, and Shops at Don Mills.
Chick-fil-A says it expects to continue its expansion into new Canadian markets in the coming years, including Ottawa and more in Alberta.
A news release by the company said that each new location is expected to hire approximately 80 to 120 additional employees, joining the more than 400 already working at the six existing locations. It also said that every time a Chick-fil-A restaurant opens, $25,000 is donated to a local non-profit organization in the area to help reduce hunger and food waste. To date, Chick-fil-A says its restaurants have donated over 2.5 million meals to those in need.
