CEO's Message
by James Chase

As we speak to members around BC, we continue to hear that the labour shortage is already upon us and is becoming a greater challenge every day. 
In order to help address this issue, the government of Canada recently announced that it would now allow foreign students in recognized post-secondary institutions to obtain work off-campus. Though this is an interesting development, it isn’t a “silver bullet” solution. While we continue to explore a variety of solutions including connecting with Youth Work Abroad organizations, our focus remains on the expansion of the temporary foreign worker program. 
Based on the realities of our demographics, over the long term Canada will have no choice but to look abroad and increase immigration in order to keep our economy running. However, this does little to address the immediate labour shortage problem. 
Both the BCYHA and the Hotel Association of Canada are working with Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, and Citizenship and Immigration Canada to further explore options surrounding the employment of temporary foreign workers. While there are compelling precedents regarding the agriculture industry’s use of temporary foreign workers, we have some obstacles to overcome before the program can be expanded to the point where it would be of benefit to our industry. 
If there is any hope of expanding the temporary foreign worker program, we must demonstrate to our government that we’ve exhausted all other sources of employee pools, including broadening recruitment searches across the country. It is also necessary that we reach out as an industry to our First Nations communities to source employees. Hotels must continue working to “build bridges” with First Nations, and make efforts to gainfully employ more individuals within these communities. Fortunately, our outreach to First Nations groups is timely as both senior levels of government announced details of their “New Relationship with Aboriginal People”. Further details are available on the provincial government website www.gov.bc.ca. 
On another note, over the past few months we have been meeting with our industry partners (Council of Tourism Associations, BC Lodging and Campgrounds Association, and the 3 levels of government) to share information on the issues at hand. Our top 3 issues continue to be: (1) the elimination of PST on in-room consumables; (2) how to work with our partners to meet the provincial government’s goal of doubling tourism by 2015; and (3) the execution of a research study on the 2% additional hotel room tax around the province.
The 10th Annual BC & Yukon Hotels’ Foundation Golf Tournament will be held in Richmond on July 24th. I look forward to seeing you all there.