Quebec ski resorts facing uphill battle with staffing shortages ahead of season

With ski season just around the corner, Quebec hill operators say they're scrambling to find enough staff to fill the spots needed to keep their resorts running smoothly. 

Charles Désourdy, the president and director of Ski Bromont, has begun recruitment efforts, but says not many people are biting. 

Not only are there many jobs to fill already, he says, but potential employees want to work fewer hours, meaning ski hills need to hire a lot more people this year.

"We're looking for about 380 [workers] and last year at the same time was about 280," he said, adding he never managed to fill all those vacant spots last season.

He said a lack of foreign workers due to the pandemic as well as a recent wave of people retiring from the workforce has made recruiting the necessary staff that much more difficult.

"The stars are aligned to have problems to find people to work," Désourdy said. 

The situation is no different at Mont Sutton, according to its CEO, Jean-Michel Ryan. 

"It's very challenging," said Ryan, and finding people to staff the mountaintop restaurants is "almost impossible."

Both ski hill operators say the most important jobs to fill are the snow makers, snow groomers and chairlift operators — but even workers for those jobs are scarce. 

"We may have some impacts on the numbers of lifts that can run," said Ryan. He says cutting some food and beverage services or reducing their hours of operation in order to use those workers to staff the hill is a possibility. 

Désourdy says adding short-term immigration for ski resorts will be key in completing the workforce. 

"We want to be allowed to employ temporary foreign workers like the agricultural sector does," said Désourdy. "The economy needs these people."

Ryan says his resort increased salaries for seasonal workers last year and he plans to hike it up even more this year "to make sure we're competitive." 

Both resorts are also considering limiting ski rental services to online to free up staff to take over other jobs. 

Ski passes pricier to offset costs

According to Quebec's association of ski areas (ASSQ), ski passes this year could cost you between three and 10 per cent more to account for inflation and rising operational costs. 

Annually, the average increase in costs since 2018 has been around four per cent.

Désourdy says he plans to increase the price of daily tickets by 6.5 per cent to mitigate these costs without having to cut operating hours or sacrifice the quality of trails.

He says salaries have increased by 20 per cent over the past two years to attract and retain staff — costs he says he needs to make up. 

Ryan says his resort will also raise prices for passes, as it works to find a way to ensure quality ski time this season. 

"We know that we're going to find some solutions, but [customers] may have to be patient," he said.