Consumers are hungry for culinary tourism options in the Okanagan Valley, but the industry is starved of trained culinary workers.
“There are more restaurants opening, wineries opening, the construction trade seems to be on fire right now in the Okanagan Valley so we’re definitely seeing the crunch of that demand for talent,” said Daniel Bibby, the executive director of Spirit Ridge Resort in Osoyoos.
Mica Executive Chef Nicholas Atkins said it’s tough to find trained and reliable line cooks.
“There are more restaurants than there are people to work in them,” he said.
The demand for trained workers is so high that culinary arts schools are getting bombarded with calls from employers.
“A week doesn’t go by that I don’t get five or six requests for staff,” said Chef Bernard Casavant at Okanagan College. “They’re getting creative by phoning a culinary school and saying I need people, I need bodies to run my business.”
Seasonal employment, wages, the high cost of living and a lack of affordable housing all contribute to the problem.
“The pay in our industry is not adequate,” Casavant said.
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Audrey Surrao, owner of RauDZ Creative Concepts which operates three restaurants in the Okanagan, said short-term rentals are taking much needed rental housing stock off of the market.
“What are our options, where do we go when all of the inventory of places our potential staff could live are being used for Airbnb?” she said.
Some employers are even offering incentives like end of season and referral bonuses, transportation and accommodation.
Dave Keeler, President of Vintage Hospitality which manages six south Okanagan restaurants, said he’s even housed workers in his own home.
“We had two chefs that came to work for us, they came from Alberta, they found it tough to find accommodation initially, and we put them up in a spare room in our house for two months,” he said.
The company is exploring purpose-built accommodation to house skilled labour.
“A lot of the camps up in the Fort McMurray area have portable units that are modular that become homes for people, we’re looking at that,” Bibby said.
The industry organization tasked with assisting tourism businesses with their labour challenges said it’s a global issue.
“We are scouring the province, the country and the world for professional culinary staff, there is a shortage…it is a global problem,” said go2HR CEO Arlene Keis.
The Okanagan food and beverage industry is trying to stir up a recipe for success.
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