Banff’s tourism industry is calling on the federal government to pilot a seasonal tourism worker program next year to help deal with the area’s critical labour shortage.
A recently released study by Banff & Lake Louise Hospitality Association (BLLHA) and the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC) revealed a shortage of more than 400 workers in Banff last July alone, at the same time visitor numbers continued to soar by 10.4 per cent.
Officials say they are asking the Liberal government to pilot a seasonal tourism worker program from May to September 2016 modelled on the seasonal agricultural work program, which would allow them to hire people from overseas for the busy tourist season.
“We were not surprised by the fact we have a labour shortage, but we were surprised by the extent to which we are struggling and certainly in the summer months when we need labour most,” said Darren Reeder, BLLHA’s executive director.
“It points to how acute the labour challenges have become and points to the fact there are a number of these front line jobs that are hard to fill and Canadians are not taking a number of these positions,” he added.
“Our specific request of the federal government will be to give us some expedited access to foreign workers, vis a vis work permits or visa approvals to fill a percentage, if not all, of those positions because we’ve been able to show Canadians are not taking them.”
The study involved an online survey of 61 respondents representing 2,125 tourism employees in the Banff and Lake Louise area. It also involved collecting statistics from the month of July from 45 companies and a total of 2,400 staff.
Key findings included each business, on average, reported a shortage of 21 employees. Guest room attendants represent the largest shortfall at 106, which is the number of staff needed to clean a 1,136-room hotel.
Other jobs under pressure were kitchen help, line cooks and food and beverage servers.
During July, more than 9,300 hours of overtime was reported. Nine respondents mentioned concerns about safety and employee burnout due to overtime.
Reeder said the data represents a small sample.
“This is probably a two-thirds sample of all of our hoteliers, so in my opinion, it quite significantly understates how much overtime was paid,” he said.
A government spokesperson was not available to talk before the Outlook went to press, however Banff-Airdrie Conservative MP Blake Richards said he would continue to represent the local tourism industry.
“For our area there is certainly a need to look at permanent solutions to labour challenges, and certainly I think that study has done a good job of identifying the problems,” said Richards, now the opposition tourism critic.
“It’s good to continue the conversation happening there about some of the permanent solutions and try to address the barriers and obstacles there.”
The study concluded school schedules and housing were the main barriers to hiring Canadians.
In Banff, there’s a zero vacancy rate and the average monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $1,056 compared to the average monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Canada of $842.
Companies stated that people just weren’t responding to job postings or didn’t possess the required skills.
But the study also revealed that Banff and Lake Louise employers are paying significantly more than Alberta’s $10.20 minimum wage, as well as the $9.20 minimum wage for liquor servers.
In addition to competitive wages, employers also offer benefits such as private health insurance top-ups, tips and commissions, housing subsidies, company discounts, bonuses and free or discounted meals.
“One of the things we try to say in defence of people who say, ‘well you don’t pay enough’ is, in reality, the average employer was paying anywhere between 20 and 40 per cent above minimum wage,” Reeder said.
“This notion that you just have to pay more than minimum wage is a misnomer.”
According to Reeder, last summer’s critical labour shortage was largely invisible to the 3.6 million visitors to the park, but that is not something that is sustainable into the future with growing visitation.
“I think people took very heroic attempts to do what they had to do to fill those gaps, but it wasn’t without its impacts,” he said.
“A lot of the people in the back of house operations were asked to do a lot more – supervisors and managers were out there having to make beds and clean rooms.”
Reeder said by far the most concerning number that came of the study is that attrition rates are up 28 per cent, noting that number highlights how much Banff’s existing workforce is strained.
He said this isn’t just front line staff, but supervisor and management positions.
“When you are losing people in supervisory and management positions that are doing the extras, that’s like a 1 to 2.0 full time equivalent that you’re losing. When you start losing supervisors and managers, it’s very hard to replace,” he said.
“When we are asking people to keep deferring vacation and to work overtime and to go the extra mile and help the company get through, you can only do that for so long before people snap, before they pursue alternative careers.”
In recent years, many businesses in Banff and Lake Louise have employed temporary foreign workers (TFW) to address increasing labour shortages.
But a number of well-publicized cases of abuse of the program across Canada, as well as skepticism surrounding the labour problem, led to additional restrictions on the program, including a dramatic hike in administrative fees to $1,000 per worker.
According to the study, businesses are more reliant on the working holiday program, officially called International Experience Canada. Of the 94 foreign workers hired, only four per cent were temporary foreign workers and the rest were with the working holiday program.
Of the total new hires, four were temporary foreign workers and 91 were on the working holiday program.
Anticipated claw backs in the working holiday visa for 2016 have local businesses worried.
According to the study, International Experience Canada closed all categories and waiting lists by Oct. 9, 2015. There have also been reports the government will reduce the number of applicants to Canada starting in 2016.
Reeder said by closing applications for those seeking a working holiday visa, the government is closing yet another program that allows businesses to hire workers willing to take on low-skilled work.
He said as working holiday visa holders are more numerous in Banff and Lake Louise than from the regular temporary foreign worker stream, the inability to hire will only lead to a greater labour shortage next summer.
“As an international resort, we have always depended on international workers. It has always been part of our fabric,” said Reeder. “There will be impacts with the clampdown on some of these rules.”
In the absence of Canadians taking jobs here, Reeder said the local tourism industry is looking for the seasonal tourism worker program to be piloted next summer.
“It’s a bit like a seasonal agricultural worker program, where it brings people in for a time, and then allows them to go back home. It would give us access to those foreign markets, allow them to come in and then leave at the end of our peak season,” he said.
“Part of the study was to say specifically here’s where we’re struggling in numbers and by job occupation and we want to show the federal government here are the positions we need to hire that Canadians are telling us they’re not wanting or not willing to take.”
