Owner of Passek's Classics Harry Passek has been looking for more employees for the last 10 weeks with no luck (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

LABOUR SHORTAGES

Kamloops businesses facing ongoing labour shortages, Chamber searching for solutions

Oct 19, 2021 | 4:13 PM

KAMLOOPS — Harry Passek can often be found in the kitchen of his restaurant. He loves to cook.

However, he also has little choice with a shortage of workers to keep Passek’s Classics going strong.

“I’ve had an ad in the paper for about two and a half months now trying to find night staff so we can open for dinners and offer our European menu we’re planning,” said Passek. “I can’t find servers. We can’t seem to get any cooks. Everybody’s just decided to lay low and take it easy I guess.”

The ongoing labour shortage all comes during Small Business Week across the country.

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While Service Canada doesn’t have concrete numbers on how many have dipped into the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) or Employment Insurance (EI), Passek feels some have been relying on it too heavily.

Passek says he offers competitive wages to his employees — starting at $18 to $20 an hour for cooks — with benefits after three months, and even with that it’s still tough to find people.

“Mostly front of the house people have applied. Kitchen is the one area that’s more difficult because one of the other things that people are saying when you mention the wage is they feel like they’re not being paid fairly in some establishments and they’re being overworked, and not being paid for their overtime,” noted Passek.

Passek pays overtime, but that’s not always the case, he notes.

The lack of workers is a problem felt across the city. Fratelli Foods downtown is looking to fill three positions at the moment.

The Kamloops Chamber of Commerce says the labour crunch was being felt before the pandemic, but has been accelerated by COVID-19.

“We recently conducted our business walks activity where we went to four different neighbourhoods in their commercial areas, and COVID was definitely something we heard about, but the No. 1 challenge we’ve been hearing is about labour,” said the executive director of the Kamloops Chamber of Commerce Acacia Pangilinan.

The Chamber has been meeting with provincial and federal agencies, including the B.C. Finance Minister. There is a meeting scheduled for Wednesday with the B.C. Minister of Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation.

“There are lots of tools that the provincial and federal governments can use to help employers attract and retain their employees,” said Pangilinan. “Things like the wage subsidy that was offered by the federal government were a lifeline for our members, and those types of supports would be really helpful for employers to give competitive employment packages.”

Passek desperately needs workers, but also feels it would be good for people to get back to work and feel a sense of normalcy.