Sure. Thank you for the question.
The labour challenges that our sector was facing, even before the pandemic, were reaching the point of crisis. This is because demand to visit Canada and regions like yours.... Canada has become one of the most desirable places in the world to visit, so we were already struggling to find enough workers.
There's a global phenomenon here, where there aren't enough workers to support our economy into the recovery. That was exacerbated during COVID. We have been struggling to keep our doors open, but we did see some domestic recovery this summer in some regions like yours. From the calls that I got all summer long, we couldn't find enough workers. People don't want to come back. I will say that one of the issues that was voiced to me on countless occasions is that the CERB program was encouraging people to stay home, as opposed to coming back to work.
I appreciate that the CERB program was important and critical for a lot of individuals, including some of the witnesses here today, but it impacted our ability to attract workers back this summer.