The last year saw rising fortunes for Whistler’s business community, with increases in business sentiment and improvements in staffing—but challenges lie ahead.
Executive director of the Whistler Chamber of Commerce, Louise Walker, said with borders being open, the revival of events, and a return of foreign workers, 2023 “saw some improvements on key challenges of 2022.”
The workforce is a perennial issue, with many businesses forced to cut back on hours due to a lack of staff.
“We saw the percentages of businesses reporting to be fully staffed improved from winter 22-23 to summer, and it improved again this winter,” said Walker, who gave some credit to the return of temporary foreign workers for the positive change.
“In our recent member survey … the majority of businesses are reporting that they’re fully staffed for winter. This is a really significant improvement on the previous year,” she said.
The Whistler Chamber and Tourism Whistler partnered this season to launch an international recruitment campaign, Live, Work and Play in Whistler, which showcased Whistler as an appealing and accessible place to live, work and play to encourage applications to job postings across the community.
Running in two waves in 2023, the campaign targeted 18- to 35-year-olds based in Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the U.K. through marketing on social media, and directed them to the Whistler Chamber website, which has a job board and tools to help temporary workers get settled in the community.
Walker said while more than 70 per cent of businesses are reporting they are fully staffed, the business community still has plenty of opportunities available.
Front-of-mind, however, remains access to affordable housing, which Walker described as the “No. 1 issue facing businesses.”
“We still need affordable housing, and that is a long-term issue that isn’t going to fix itself in the course of one or two seasons,” she said.
She added the Chamber is attempting to help through the Whistler Experience Program, which was designed to help improve the visitor experience through education of new workers, and offers incentives and local deals to those who complete the program, thus helping with affordability.
Some businesses are still seeking to get in on housing themselves.
“A lot of businesses are working really hard to help out with the cost of living, so some businesses, when possible, are subsidizing housing options,” Walker said.
Looking ahead to 2024, Walker said there is optimism for the year going by the chamber’s recent member survey.
“We saw a significant improvement in business sentiment. The proportion of businesses stating they were in good shape or very good shape has doubled since 2021, although we do recognize that 2021 was two years ago when we were in the middle of a pandemic … so it’s difficult to compare, but we definitely are seeing optimism,” Walker said.
The pressures facing Canadians also apply to businesses, however.
“One of the biggest challenges that businesses are facing right now is the cost of doing business. Businesses are getting squeezed by rising costs on all fronts,” she said, noting with the labour market improving, businesses are on the hook for additional stat days, employee health taxes and higher wages, among other expenses related to keeping a fully-staffed workforce.
“No one denies that these are important aspects for employees and quality of life, but the reality is that businesses face these increased costs, and so when you add in rent, property tax, interest rates, housing subsidies for some, you can see the accumulation of all these additional costs is really quite significant,” Walker said.
Priorities for the business sector in 2024 include finding ways to deal with the increasing cost of doing business, and pushing for more affordable housing in the community.
“We cannot take our foot off the gas—we have to work together as a community with all the different stakeholders involved to find a long-term solution,” Walker said. “There’s been great work done there, and there’s lots of exciting new builds coming on, but we need to keep pushing forward.”
