Human Resources committee  Hiring a Canadian versus hiring a temporary foreign worker, is that essentially the question? Yes. What I hear from my members is that they would far prefer to hire a Canadian. It is easier and cheaper. As I was saying, 93% of my members are small businesses. They are the backb

Human Resources committee  What we saw at the end of last summer and we started to see this winter—and I think we'll hit that choke point again—is that businesses started to limit their hours. I have more data, and we'll have our handouts and white papers translated for the committee here, but 40% of my me

Human Resources committee  What it means is, if you've ever had the experience of walking into a store when you desperately want to be helped by a member of that team, the experience is of walking around and feeling like no one is taking care of you. It does again compromise our ability to deliver those wo

Human Resources committee  The top four most needed positions in Whistler right now are line cooks, housekeepers, front of house food services, which includes servers, bartenders, and hosts, and front desk agents, so that's guest services and reservation agents. Of note, 14% of the businesses we surveyed a

Human Resources committee  Yes.

Human Resources committee  We're in conversations with Quest University and the nations, and possibly both entities are looking at putting together a culinary school. We are looking to educational partnerships to figure out how we can get more education in the corridor for the positions we need. To partia

Human Resources committee  In Whistler since 2010 up to 2014, I'll read out the number of temporary foreign workers according to Stats Canada: 260 in 2010, 140 in 2011, 125 in 2012, 147 in 2013, and 106 in 2014. It shows a downward trend with a couple of little blips in between.

Human Resources committee  Of course, I can't speak to the detailed experience of everyone who comes in, but I can say, given that our business is to create happy experiences for people when they come to the resort, that we can't have unhappy staff create happy experiences for our guests. For example, at t

Human Resources committee  To be fair, I think there would be typical ski-town stereotypes of multiple people living in a room, but I think that is not the norm, absolutely, and it's a short-term thing.

Human Resources committee  Yes. I quoted a statistic a little earlier. We did a survey at the end of summer 2015, heading into our last winter season, and 78% of our businesses surveyed said they had increased wages in the last six months; 71% of those businesses said that increase was between 6% and 25%.

Human Resources committee  That's a fair question. I have not heard of many examples of that. What I have heard is that more on the leading edge of the application process, it can be very difficult. With regard to some of the examples brought up here on this panel, those are very legitimate reasons to be b

Human Resources committee  Just to clarify the question, you mean why should we be exempt from that 6% rule? That's a great question. The mainland south-west catchment is currently at 6%. We're at 1.8%. I think given our distance from a large urban centre that it isn't easy for people to necessarily commu

Human Resources committee  Our biggest employer in town, Whistler Blackcomb, has a very aggressive and robust recruitment rhythm annually throughout the Lower Mainland, including digital advertising, which would include social media advertising and things like targeted Facebook ads to youth for sure. As a

Human Resources committee  From my opinion and what I'm hearing from my members. it has not streamlined the process. In fact, it has become more onerous and prohibitive to employers.

Human Resources committee  Absolutely. That report is not just for Whistler. It's for the coastal mountains specifically in tourism and hospitality. What happens especially in ski resorts is if you don't get that baseline number of ski instructors, you're just not getting the customers coming through, an