From restaurants to hotels to the fire department, Thompson struggles with shortage of workers

The president of the Thompson Chamber of Commerce says the worker shortage in her northern Manitoba city is so bad, she was cleaning rooms at the hotel where she's a manager herself because she couldn't find housekeepers.

"Medium and small businesses … we're struggling to get people to work," said Ethel Timbang, the general manager at the Best Western Hotel in the city of 13,000 — the largest in northern Manitoba.

"If you are an investor and if you want to put up a company here, you need people to work. If you don't have any people to work, then that's an ultimate challenge."

She's far from the only business owner facing that challenge.

Blaine Prince, chef and manager of Baacos Bar and Grill, says keeping his Thompson restaurant fully staffed is a constant struggle.

"We do get a lot of people dropping off resumés, but really to find a quality … staff member is a struggle," Prince said. "You're having to get kind of creative just to get … bodies in the building."

Right now Baacos is fully staffed, Prince said, but "that can change on a whim."

The worker shortage even extends to city hall, where it can take up to a year or two to fill positions, depending on the skills needed, said Mayor Colleen Smook.

The city is looking to fill almost every type of job — from office and finance work to wastewater and heavy equipment operators to heavy-duty mechanics.

There are 120 employees with the City of Thompson and 15 currently vacant jobs — a vacancy rate of just over 10 per cent, according to the city.

"Our fire department is a good example that we struggle with keeping enough people," Smook said.

"People are up here, you know, literally head-hunting them," leaving shortages in a fire department that she said handles more service calls than the much-larger city of Brandon's.

The city faces several challenges when it comes to recruiting employees, said Smook, including the fact wage rates are about the same as in southern cities, while the cost of living is higher. 

The city is hearing that throughout virtually all sectors, the gaps have been exacerbated since the COVID-19 pandemic, said Anthony McInnis, Thompson's city manager. Small and medium-sized businesses have been hit particularly hard, he said.

Filling those spots will take a mix of options, including immigration and Indigenous partnerships, he said.

The city wants to work with the province to establish a northern immigration program to help fill skilled trades jobs, McInnis says.

The city does not track general job vacancy rates in Thompson, but that is something it will work on when the immigration office is established, he said.

"We hear anecdotally ... what the needs are, but we really have to put that together and then do some targeted recruiting for that, whether it's in Canada or whether it's immigrants to Canada," he said.

The lack of workers can have devastating impacts on Thompson's economy, he said.

"It can slow projects down … so things don't always move as fast as they should, and there's sometimes lost opportunity when that happens," said McInnis.

"It's critical that we get those jobs filled and bring up the skilled people that we need."

Filling gaps

University College of the North, which has a Thompson campus, is working to address the community's employment needs, says Tim Gibson, manager of the post-secondary school's Northern Workforce Development Centre.

The focus is on upgrading skills and training students to fill industry needs — including for small and medium-sized businesses, he said.

"There's openings each and every day. There's consistently job ads that get placed that never get filled."

Building the city's security guard workforce through a training program at UCN is one recent example of addressing community job needs, he said.

"We would recruit, locally, potential candidates to go through the program, maybe add a piece of essential skills up front," Gibson said.

"They're working upon graduation, so that's a good example of an ideal situation."

Meanwhile, Timbang says she was able to fill chronically empty positions with help from temporary foreign workers. The Best Western hired five housekeepers and is now in the process of applying for three additional front desk staff.

Baacos also wants to recruit temporary foreign workers, Prince says. The restaurant is also looking at the possibility of turning to co-op students and apprenticeships to help fill positions.

"It's a great idea, because of course they're [temporary foreign workers] contractually obliged to stay for two years," he said. 

"I have worked with foreign workers before and they're very hard-working … [and] reliable staff."