A favourite winter spot is at risk because of reforms to the temporary foreign worker program.
Vista Ridge says safety and service at the ski hill will be compromised if the changes to the federal program stall the hiring process this year. Management says it had at least 30 full-time staff at the ski hill last year. Twenty-two of them were TFWs.
“It enables us to stay open during the week so if we can’t provide the level of safety and the quality of instruction, obviously the school boards are going to be hesitant about allowing the students to come out here on a school day,” says General Manager Kevin Grogan.
Last year’s hiring process for TFWs took 13 weeks, and Grogan says that’s already prompting foreign workers to look elsewhere for jobs. Vista has been accessing the federal program since it opened in 1996.
“There’s a survey done among the Canada West ski areas […] so what’s classified as a ski patrol or ski instructor, we are on the high end of that wage,” says Grogan.
The more rigorous market impact assessment test and the $1,000 fee employers have to pay for every worker they want to hire has management worried about the quality of service this season. He says Vista needs the TFWs to fill the seasonal positions.
