By Tammy Raycraft,
Bruce Peninsula Press
As the summer season quickly approaches, all of the North Bruce Peninsula is getting ready for another busy tourism season.
The Tobermory and Northern Bruce Peninsula Chamber of Commerce held a job fair on Saturday March 7 at the Tobermory Community Centre, which hosted 20 local business all looking to fill seasonal and some full-time positions.
Larger, regional employers included the Municipality of Northern Bruce Peninsula, Parks Canada, RBC, Owen Sound Transportation Company and Tobermory and the Northern Bruce Peninsula Chamber of Commerce.
Brian Woelfle, the Coordinator for the Tobermory and the Northern Bruce Peninsula Chamber of Commerce, said Tobermory had not run a job fair in six years, and this was the first one he had led. Woelfle said that filling these job openings is “huge” when it comes to the success of Tobermory’s tourism season.
“I know just from walking through the harbour last year, there were some ‘help wanted’ signs up the whole season,” he said. “So, my thought last year was maybe we should bring a job fair back here, if there are people looking for jobs not realizing that there are businesses looking for staff.”
Pierre Valley, Economic Development officer for Bruce County agreed the importance of seasonal workers is “massive” for both Tobermory and all of North Bruce.
“It’s a huge influx of hundreds of thousands of people that come up here in the summer, so that seasonal employment is critical to the success of the season,” said Valley.
Valley, who overlooks workforce development, said that job fairs like this one are an important part of the mix when it comes to filling these roles, especially because there is a constant growing need.
“There is a huge rebound on internal travel within Canada,” he said. “One of the destination places is here in Bruce County so it is constantly growing, and I don’t think it’s going anywhere.”
Mark Coleman, Manager of Parks and Facilities for the Municipality of North Bruce Peninsula, said some facilities are open year-round, so the department plays a critical role in providing services to the community, and helping the community connect. “We have a whole range of seasonal and student positions throughout the year, and certainly in the summer months,” he said. “The chamber is taking a good initiative to get employers out.”
Coleman agreed that tourism is changing both locally and nationally. “With less people going south of the border and more doing local stays, with even the cost of living and travel, people are doing more localized trips, and smaller trips,” he said. “It is a destination, not just provincially but internationally, it’s on the map.”
Mindy Scott, who is in the Administrative Services role with the Blue Heron Company in Tobermory, said the business couldn’t run without the workers they hire for the season. “Tourism builds every year in this area, always building and always changing, so as years go on, we require more people in different areas of the business,” she said.
Jack O’Shea, owner of Tobermory Coffee Company Café, said one of the biggest challenges they face is not having a residence for employees they hire.
Housing in Tobermory can be difficult for seasonal workers to find. To help, Woelfle said a lot of local companies in Tobermory have accommodations they can offer to some of their staff, but in most cases these spots are limited.
Woelfle said he hopes to keep the job fair going in the future. “Depending on the flavour for pushing out our shoulder seasons beyond just tourism, I am more than willing to do another one,” he said.
A second job fair is planned for Saturday, March 14th at the Rotary Hall in Lion’s Head from 12-5pm. Free to attend.
