The demand at most Calgary restaurants and bars has returned, many of the workers have not
As Alberta and the rest of Canada continues to reopen, businesses are trying to quickly make up for lost time and lost revenue. But many in Calgary's bar and restaurant sector say there's a major problem: staffing.
"Finding team members is the biggest challenge, by far," said Brett Ireland, the CEO of the Bearhill Brewing group, which has establishments in Calgary, Banff, Jasper and Edmonton.
"And I'm hearing this across the entire industry -- and even outside of the hospitality industry," he said.
Ireland said they're having the most trouble filling kitchen positions, but there are shortages of servers and hosts, too. The Bearhill group usually has about 450 employees spread out at its locations, but Ireland said they're hovering around 300 people right now and can't find people to fill the positions people left behind.
"The main two contributing factors are people are still adjusting to coming out of everything we've been through in the past year," he said, "the biggest one is, for our industry, there's this mass exodus and a lack of interest in working in hospitality because it's gone through these crazy shutdowns."
Brett Ireland, Bearhill Brewing
Some of the group's locations, especially in resort areas like Banff and Jasper, are limiting operating hours -- at time to just four hours per day -- because of the difficulties in finding people to work.
HOTELS ALSO HIT HARD
It's not just restaurants and bars looking for workers, it's the hotel sector as well.
"There's definitely a staff shortage in the city," said Sol Zia with the Calgary Hotel Association.
"Last I checked, there's about 400 open positions in the city of Calgary across our hotels."
He said the positions they're looking to fill are mostly in housekeeping, maintenance and food and beverage.
"It's all hands on deck, so everyone at the hotel is cleaning rooms," Zia said.
"Some hotels have had to curb their reservations due to lack of housekeeping staff. So, quite honestly, turn away reservations."
A lot of the positions needed are low-wage positions and Zia said he believes some workers are choosing to collect the federal recovery benefit instead of working.
"Some hotels are paying people more. They've had to increase their wages and wage structure," Zia said.
In the restaurant industry, Ireland said this will likely lead to a discussion about how to better compensate workers as so many leave the sector.
"Longer term, really thinking about, as an employer, what are we doing to attract people and retaining them and what can we do better at?" Ireland said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Alice Munro, Nobel literature winner revered as short story master, dead at 92
Nobel laureate Alice Munro, the Canadian literary giant who became one of the world's most esteemed contemporary authors and one of history's most honoured short story writers, has died at age 92.
Latest updates on air quality alerts, and when the smoke may reach Ontario and Quebec
Wildfires have led Environment Canada to issue air quality advisories for parts of B.C., Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories, as forecasters warn the smoke could drift farther east.
Are these Canada's best restaurants? Annual top 100 list revealed
The annual list of Canada's top restaurants in the country was just released and here are the places that made the 2024 cut.
Attack on prison van in France kills 2 officers, inmate escapes
Armed assailants killed two French prison officers and seriously wounded three others in an attack on a convoy in Normandy on Tuesday and an inmate escaped, officials said.
Maximum payout for LifeLabs class-action drops from $150 estimate to $7.86
Canadian LifeLabs customers who filed an application for a class-action settlement began receiving their payments this week, though at a much lower amount than initially expected.
Steal a car, lose your driver's licence for 10 years under new Ontario proposal
Repeat car thieves may face lengthy licence bans under proposed changes to Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act.
$1.6B parts plant for Honda electric vehicle batteries coming to Niagara Region
A Japanese company has announced it will build an approximately $1.6-billion plant in Ontario's Niagara Region that will make a key electric vehicle battery component as part of Honda's supply chain in the province.
B.C. brings in law on name changes on day that child killer's new identity revealed
The BC NDP have tabled legislation aimed at stopping people who have committed certain heinous acts from changing their names.
Manitoba premier to visit areas impacted by wildfire
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew will get a close-up look at the devastation from a large wildfire burning in northern Manitoba Tuesday.