This is the third part of a CKTZ News series about Living Wages. To hear about the increase in living wages in the region, click here, and how other local industries are adapting, click here.

The Squirrel Cove General Store is one of four grocery stores on Cortes Island, and owner Kurt Cunningham says all the stores struggle with the same things: sourcing staff, overhead costs like staff wages, and keeping costs affordable for local customers.

Cunningham primarily runs the store by himself to save money on staffing overhead. He pays “about $18 an hour.”

"I strongly believe that people should have a fair wage and have a livable wage.", Cunningham said in response to whether he believed the current standard of $20.26 per hour was attainable.

Cunningham is open to innovative solutions, like having all four grocers on Cortes mutually agree to close one or two days a week. The solution would protect the businesses from unfair competition, and lessen the challenge of staffing the stores, and it would hopefully help increase wages, he says.

Living wage advocate Anastasia French said that any and all innovative solutions are worth considering to increase wages, which are unique to every business.

“We do know in terms of reducing hours that across the province, since the pandemic, there are lots of businesses that now don't open on Mondays and Tuesdays because they can't find staff to work those hours. And paying a living wage can be one way of combating that labor shortage that we are hearing about.”

Another solution that Cunningham is considering is an employee-owned business model. In general, the store owner is open to community input and "open-minded" about ways to improve the way the store serves the region.

To hear more about the rural struggles of keeping a general store alive and offering a living wage, listen to the CKTZ News Update below: