“I don’t know if it’s harder this season. It never got easy,” says Christopher Nicolson, president of Tourism Sun Peaks.
Nicolson stated that the struggle to find seasonal staff was alive and well this season. This can be seen by taking a walk around the village or searching online — there’s plenty of work to be found.
“Finding and retaining employees is a massive challenge. It’s a challenge for every resort in western Canada, and the Federal Government seems very insensitive to this fact.”
Changes to the Foreign Workers Program over the past two years have resulted in greatly increased costs for businesses when recruiting staff from outside Canada.
Nicolson said the Federal Government’s belief that Canadians would travel for seasonal employment was misguided: “It’s simply not the case that Canadian’s are willing to relocate for four months of work.”
The closure of Hemlock Resort this year, due to poor weather, had resulted in an influx of staff to Sun Peaks mid-season.
“It has been helpful, but it’s not a long-term solution. It won’t help us next year.”
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