The Tomahawk Barbeque in North Vancouver has been in business for 92 years and usually has a full dining room.
Starting Dec. 29, the Tomahawk has been closing at 4:00 p.m because it doesn’t have enough staff, despite a $20/hr starting wage for kitchen staff.
Tomahawk owner Chuck Chamberlain says he never expected to close early due to a staff shortage.
“We can’t say, ‘Well, the last time this happened we did this to correct it,’ it’s all new ground for all of us in the hospitality trade,” said Chamberlain. “It’s learning as you go along, it’s quite scary actually.”
The Tomahawk is one of the restaurants in B.C. affected by a province-wide food worker shortage that the The B.C. Restaurant & Food Services Association (BCRFA) says is currently at 20,000 and growing.
“We’re at a pre-crisis stage for labourers in the province,” said BCRFA president Ian Tostenson. “We have a situation in B.C. where we have fewer people coming into the system, and more people retiring.”
One of the BCRFA’s plans to address the shortage is to re-think the restaurant culture by looking for workers outside of the able-bodied, millennial, and Generation Z demographics, and understanding workers’ needs such as certainty, wages, benefits, and career paths.
“It’s not always about the money,” said Tostenson. “It’s often about the quality that you can provide the employee, the work-life balance.”
Chamberlain says the Tomahawk could ride it out for three to four years, but there would be no other option except shutting down if the staff shortage continues.
The BCRFA will present their full list of ideas to the province next month.
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