Banff Community Reviews

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Since restrictions were eased in Alberta and other parts the world, tourists have been returning to Banff to enjoy popular destinations. However, there is a labour shortage that is making it difficult for the mountain town to keep up with the increasing numbers. The hospitality industry is experiencing the greatest decline, with many vacant positions in restaurants and hotels. “At the moment the biggest problem is not having temporary foreign workers,”Alex Boston, the owner and general manager at Nourish Bistro, said: “There’s a lot of jobs in town that regular, hard working local people don’t really want to do anymore.” He mentions that housekeeping and back-of-house jobs are the types of work that temporary workers often fill. Fred Cloutier is the Banff Ave Brewing Co. head brewer. He says they are doing okay, mainly because of their dedicated core staff who have stayed on during the pandemic. But she also says that many businesses are in serious trouble. “You definitely notice going in to restaurants and you have hard time getting a table because they don’t have the staff, or a lot of restaurants will shut for lunch because they don’t have the staff to run the restaurant,”She said. To provide more jobs for Albertans unable to work during the pandemic, the provincial government placed a cap on the number of temporary foreign workers. This was a significant blow to Banff’s tourism economy, which relies heavily on international workers. Michel Dufresne, a director with The Job Resource Centre, which operates in Banff and Canmore, says the limit on the temporary foreign workers program has been lifted, but it’s been a struggle to get the workers back to Canada. He says they are not getting the responses they’re used to seeing for their winter recruitment promotion. “It usually start in February. We try to get the students from universities and people who will enter the market in the summer,” he said. “The numbers are down significantly this year.” He suggests that slow processing times for international workers’ applications could be the cause of the shortage. “We’re told that there’s no backlogs but we’re not seeing people from those places come in and the numbers we’re used to seeing in previous years,” he said. “Usually we’re very, very busy. I think that the (temporary foreign worker) program might have reopen, but that doesn’t mean people want to apply for the jobs.” Boston says his restaurant is smaller so they are getting by right now with the staff they’ve been able to attract and retain, but worries about when the summer hits and patios open up. He’ll need twice to staff to keep it operating. “It falls a lot of myself and my business partner’s shoulders to take the labour wherever we need to and then hopefully we can hire those people for positions,” he said. “But if we can’t we will just have to roll up the sleeves and do it ourselves.” Source: CTV