– Jen Dart is Executive Director of the Tofino-Long Beach Chamber of Commerce. She can be reached at 250.725.3153. www.tofinochamber.org.
TOFINO – The winter is typically a time in Tofino that many locals and business owners leave for sunnier climates or other parts of the country to enjoy much needed breaks. The business climate is still quite seasonal, but the West Coast, like many other areas, has been experiencing bumps in visitation during what was once the shoulder season.
This is a welcome change to a more year-round tourism economy, but does present challenges for small businesses in terms of staffing.
In the first two quarters of 2016 Tofino’s Visitor Centre statistics showed increases of nine per cent and 14 per cent over 2015, which itself was a banner year for visitation to the West Coast (and a significant jump over 2014). These incremental increases mean more business during the “off” months (September to June).
Small independently owned businesses, which make up the bulk of Tofino’s business community, welcome an increase in business at this time but also struggle to deal with it in terms of maintaining adequate staffing levels. Much of Tofino’s summer workforce is made up of transient, seasonal workers, some of whom attend college or university during the year.
These workers are leaving around late August or early September, but businesses certainly don’t slow down at that point. I’ve spoken to businesses who were experiencing heavy volumes into November this year. Some could not be open for as many hours in the day they would like due to staff shortages.
The staffing issue is affecting many other resort municipalities and like other jurisdictions it is exacerbated by lack of housing in Tofino. The District of Tofino has taken some steps to address this issue.
Several things will influence how Tofino is able to deal with seasonal and year-round staffing, including developments on the temporary foreign worker program. Housing will also play a large role, enticing otherwise transient workers to stick around if they have an affordable and adequate place to live. Addressing the issue of transportation in the region is another issue and an area that the Chamber board feels would contribute significantly to easing worker shortages.
Getting to and from work and accessing affordable childcare are two of the main barriers to local residents having greater participation in the workforce.
As usual, the way of dealing with this issue is a multi-pronged approach that requires involvement from all levels of government and organizations like the Chamber of Commerce. Luckily we are dealing with issues of plenty and not of lack.