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Whistler a tough sell based on stats

By all official reports Whistler’s two job fairs — Whistler-Blackcomb’s last week and the Whistler Employment Centre’s fair this week — have eased concerns about not having enough employees this winter.
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By all official reports Whistler’s two job fairs — Whistler-Blackcomb’s last week and the Whistler Employment Centre’s fair this week — have eased concerns about not having enough employees this winter. That doesn’t mean everyone’s needs have been met — check out the employment ads, now appearing in more than one language — but at least the biggest labour shortage in several generations isn’t going to devastate Whistler this winter.

However, there’s more work to do.

While Whistler has had two successful job fairs, we shouldn’t overlook the efforts that have been made to recruit employees prior to the job fairs. And those efforts are not limited to Whistler-Blackcomb and the company’s on-line registration. The chamber’s recruiter was at work in the Lower Mainland and we’ll never know how many small businesses have spread the word through personal connections in Australia, Great Britain, Japan and elsewhere.

And this labour shortage is not a one-year phenomenon. While the job fairs in Whistler have worked again this year, they aren’t on the same scale as the province of Alberta’s efforts, which include taking job fairs to St. John’s. Perhaps there would be some merit in B.C. ski resorts pooling their efforts next year to take the message of jobs to other parts of Canada and to other countries.

The message also needs to get out that it is not just T-shirt folders and chairlift loaders that Whistler is looking for. Skilled labour is needed, too. In fact, it could be argued that filling skilled labour positions is more important to the long-term well-being of Whistler than is having enough general labour.

Which brings us to some of the findings in this year’s monitoring report. In an era when the labour shortage is unprecedented in most of our lifetimes, the municipality’s 2006 monitoring report paints a picture that isn’t exactly a recruiting tool for Whistler. It also suggests that beyond recruiting, retaining employees and providing career opportunities may be difficult.

To start with, the pool of affordable housing hasn’t been overflowing with new projects in recent years. Previously in this space it was stated that no new affordable housing projects were built during the 2002-05 council term. In fact the monitoring report shows 55 affordable housing units were added to the inventory between 2003 and 2004, and 37 units were added between 2002 and 2003. There is no data in the monitoring report for 2005 but there weren’t any significant projects completed last year. This year, the first 44 units that are part of the Nita Lake Lodge project should be available by Christmas. So the grand total between 2002 and the end of 2006 will be approximately 150 new resident restricted affordable housing units.

But, you say, the Rainbow project is coming, and the Shoestring Lodge and the athletes’ village and a couple of other things are in the pipe.

They are in the pipe, so to speak, but when will they actually become part of the pool of affordable housing? The athletes’ village, obviously, won’t be available until sometime after March of 2010. The Shoestring Lodge is still standing, which means construction of the resident restricted townhomes on that site hasn’t started. Nor has construction started on the second phase of affordable housing tied to the Nita Lake Lodge. And the bylaws for the Rainbow project still have to be adopted, and won’t be until a number of details are finalized. That means that actual site servicing won’t start until next spring. The developer believes they can still produce some affordable housing at Rainbow in one construction season, in other words, by December 2007. Others are more skeptical.

On the positive side, the monitoring report shows that the number of long-term rental units available is increasing. In fact, the number of units available for rent during the annual accommodation frenzy from fall to early January has more than doubled since 2002.

But housing of any type in Whistler comes at a price. According to the monitoring report, in 2005, 41 per cent of seasonal workers spent more than 30 per cent of their gross income on housing, and 30 per cent of seasonal workers spent more than 40 per cent of their gross income on housing. Moreover, 22 per cent of permanent residents spent more than 30 per cent of their gross income on housing, and 14 per cent of permanent residents spent more than 40 per cent of their gross income on housing.

It gets worse. The real median income of Whistler taxpayers — a measure of purchasing power relative to inflation — is declining (2002-04), while it is increasing in other communities in the corridor.

Fifty-nine per cent of individual seasonal residents report incomes below the cost of a basic “basket of goods”, which includes housing, transportation, food and clothing. Thirty per cent of two-parent, two-child families report incomes below this basic level, and 25 per cent of single permanent residents are also below this threshold.

The monitoring report provides a snapshot of Whistler, and some of the information has only been collected for one year so in these instances it is impossible to determine a trend. But there is enough statistical data to back up the anecdotal evidence we’ve all heard: Whistler can be a very difficult place to live. And (surprise) affordable housing is the key.

So with there being only two chances that additional affordable housing will be available by the 2007-08 winter, Whistler will have some work to do again next year when it comes to recruiting employees.