In the midst of an unusually busy shoulder season, businesses in Revelstoke are being forced to reduce hours because they can't hire enough staff.

“At one time an entire floor of a hotel here was blocked off because there was no one to clean the rooms,” says Stacey Brunsrud, the executive director of the Revelstoke Chamber of Commerce. 

The staffing shortage is a world-wide issue, and Brunsrud says it's affecting all sorts of organizations in Revelstoke, not just the service industry or entry-level positions.

In fact, the chamber has a contract to run the Revelstoke Visitors Information Centre, and they're searching for staff.

“I feel like I’m doing air traffic control, I have a couple different computers open," Brunsrud says, explaining that she's filling in until positions are filled.

Since Revelstoke is a ski resort town that experiences an influx of people in the winter and an outflow in the summer, it's common for businesses to be searching for staff this time of year. But Erik Stone, one of the owners of The Village Idiot Bar and Grill and Chubby Funsters Kitchen and Cocktails, says this spring has been different.

“Back in the day ... pre-pandemic we would have a stack of resumes here. Nowadays there is no stack, but they are starting to flow through more," he says.

Stone's restaurants have enough service staff now, but they're struggling to fill positions in the kitchen. This is affecting the hours they're open.

"We are closed two days a week because of it, so we’re only open five days, and Chubby Funsters is only open seven nights and no days," Stone says.

Brunsrud and Stone don't know exactly what's behind the shortage. Stone lost veteran employees during the pandemic restrictions, and Brunsrud says some foreign workers decided to go home at that time to be with their families. There has also been a trend of remote workers moving to Revelstoke, who increase demand but don't fill positions on the ground.

Stone used the federal Labour Impact Market Assessment program to recruit kitchen workers from Colombia. He hired four workers to come over on a visa, and is waiting for three more. 

“Hopefully by next summer we’ll be kinda, I want to say 100 per cent but we’ll knock on wood for that," he says.

But Brunsrud doesn't think we'll be going back to any kind of normal we'll recognize.

"I think there's a real shift going on in what the consumer is going to be getting, and what they're paying for," she says. Talking about how the cost of food and labour are only going up.

Click below to listen to the full report that aired on StokeFM on June 1, 2022.