A Canadian Tire location in Toronto is catching heat following allegations of mistreatment of workers.

Despite only being open for about a year, the Canadian Tire at 175 Vetiver Drive has already found itself embroiled in controversy, with its owner at the centre of an investigation by both the provincial and federal governments for the alleged mistreatment of employees hired through the federal Temporary Foreign Workers (TFW) program.

According to a report by Sammy Kogan, which was published earlier this week by the Globe and Mail, a number of the store's employees (more than a dozen of which have since resigned or been fired) have accused the store owner of lowering their wages without reason, requesting they perform jobs outside of the scope of their roles and threatening to fire them when they brought up their concerns.

According to the Globe and Mail, the franchisee is now the subject of an investigation by Employment and Social Development Canada, who are in charge of the TFW program in Canada, and who require that an employer not arbitrarily diminish the pay of a TFW without the employer filing a new application for the role.

In a statement to the Globe and Mail, the franchise owner denied the allegations raised against him.

The TFW program and temporary foreign workers have been the subject of controversy in Canada for years, with concerns for the treatment of TFWs constently bubbling up, particularly surrounding issues such as this.

Last month, the Fedeal Government announced plans to tamp down the number of TFWs in Canada by tightening the guidelines of the TFW program, including applying a 20 per cent cap policy for workers, in an effort to reduce potential exploitation and abuse within the Canadian workforce.

These measures also seek to impose stricter overhead on Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs), which document a company's approval for hiring a TFW upon assessing an apparent need for the position to be filled by a temporary foreign worker when "no Canadian worker or permanent resident is available to do it."

Just last month, Tim Horton's came under fire for filing LMIAs to fill open positions with workers coming from abroad, stoking concern about the ease with which large corporations are seemingly abusing the system to get away with lower pay and standards for their employees.

While certainly the most serious, this isn't the only controversy surrounding the new location, either.

Google Reviews left for the Canadian Tire location on Vetiver also make claims ranging all the way from poor customer service to discriminatory behaviour towards customers.

A Google review claims a shopper was not allowed to bring his bag into the store.

A number of reviews claim that security at the store would not allow them to enter the store with backpacks or purses, forcing them to leave their belongings in a storage room while they shopped. Some of these reviews suggest that the policy was "discriminatory," and enforced selectively.

In a statement to the Globe, Canadian Tire claimed they are investigating the allegations, and noted that each location is independently owned and operated by franchisees.