just heard this on the cbc. A sushi restaurant can't import sushi chefs on TFWs and a bakery can't get locals, even though they *gasp* pay above minimum wage!

considering how expensive Whistler is, maybe they need to pay more?

You see the same thing in Calgary all the time. Companies don't pay enough money for people to live on and complain that they can't get locals to accept jobs especially as the working conditions are often very poor as well; irregular hours, no medical etc.

exactly. i have *limited sympathy.

I have no sympathy for a business who modelled their business on employing people on minimum or just above minimum wage and relied on foreign workers taking these positions be it the TFW or IEC working holiday visas.
Usually these business owners also own rental units which they then charge their workers to rent as they cannot afford to rent a place of their own in places such as Whistler and quite a few other places across Canada.
Usually you will end up in shared accommodation with several others. Those on the IEC are usually a lot younger and see it as an adventure and will return home. There again some will want to stay and then find it difficult in applying for PR status as these type of jobs are usually lower skilled and won't meet FSW or PNP requirements.
I certainly couldn't afford to live and work in Whistler or Fort Mac and a few other places.

The thing is, that is the working business model for ALL ski resorts everywhere in the world...

What's the solution? Here's the business dilemma many resorts face: Commercial rent is 50-75% more expensive than in a non-resort town (Kamloops/Kelowna vs Sun Peaks/Big White, for example). Food/services prices have to reflect that, so something has to give - lower profit margins, wages or quality of whatever your business delivers. Throw into the mix a trading period of at best 8 months per year for places other than Whistler which has a relatively large permanent population, and it's pretty difficult to make a business viable.

If the jobs are lower skilled, minimum wage is appropriate. Why should experience in those sort of jobs offer FSW or PNP opportunity? IEC workers aren't forced to choose that sort of employment. If they want to stay longer here, build a career and create future emigration opportunities, then being a liftie or food server obviously wouldn't be their best route.

Well that's the point isn't it, they should go out of business. I see this in the US when they talk about raising the minimum wage and all the fast food restaurants start complaining. Well, if your employees get food stamps and go to the food bank and can't make ends meet on minimum wage - then you're in a marginal business and you should go under, or raise your prices.

It's not quite as obvious in Canada because the minimum wage is higher and there are no food stamps. At the end of the day though you're going to face this problem sooner or later because there isn't an inexhaustible supply of cheap foreign labour that you can substitute, plus people have to earn money in order to spend it.

The fact is that no economy is some perfect equation so people try and find ways of gaining a competitive advantage and I don't think importing cheap labour is an ethical way of doing it. "No-one wants these jobs" and no-one ever will, if you keep suppressing wages with imported labour and make it appear to be a crap job by using foreigners.

Personally I keep thinking that fast food jobs could probably be replaced with machines anyway.

Anyway I heard that radio bit and one of the points made was that the ski instructors they hire speak foreign languages, which seemed like a fair point to me, but that's not a low-skilled TFW then, is it?

Sushi Chefs are not low skilled either. The apprenticeship to become a proper one lasts ten years.

exactly, so why not sponsor them for PR?

There are fresh faced 18-20 yr olds every year on IEC visas flocking to ski resorts from Australasia and Europe. Looks like an inexhaustible supply to me.

IECs aren't imported, they're self-selecting individuals with free market choice.


Some speak a second language, many don't. It's not a pre-requisite. The pay rates for instructors are appalling though, and often entail days without income if there isn't enough demand for them to be needed to teach.

No its not, France would be an example, aslong as your not working for an English tour operater and work for a French employer in resort then most pay a living wage.

Its all utter nonsense anyway, its Winter and there's ample people to do the jobs here. The housing situation is appalling though, $1000 for a room in a shared house, 1 beds for over $2000, people are even renting out there campers, maybe that's why they can't supposedly get staff

I have no sympathy for Whistler employers and their complaining. I'd work in Whistler and commute (could never live there, housing costs are well above what anyone could afford on typical wages offered.) but it's not a long commute, although on really snowy day's it might not be possible to do, so could be why the employers ignore those who would need to commute in from Squamish.

I get no calls from anywhere in Whistler, so the labor shortage must not be that bad.

IMO house rental prices are the exact reasons why they can't find staff, bakers and sushi chefs aren't the kind of staff you want to rehire every season you want long term staff but high rental costs mixed with low wage means no sushi chef or baker wants to live in whistler long term.

Ski resorts in Canada need to get staff housing so that rental prices can actually be at an affordable level.