The Kamloops and District Chamber of Commerce says it is working with the provincial government to try and address labour gaps that exist in the City.
Executive Director Acacia Pangilinan told City Council Tuesday that the Chamber is working on a survey to try to understand more about the businesses in the area.
“And one of the questions we’ve asked is around labour and it continues to be one of the top issues that we hear, so its not going away,” she said. “From a policy perspective, I think there is lots of opportunity for us to work with the provincial government to create some incentives for employers or to make the environment a bit of stable for employers to provide these jobs.”
“I think employers need to take a really good look at the types of jobs that they’re offering and seek out maybe some innovation and new ideas to entice or attract people to these jobs. I also think that there are some gaps in the labour market as well.”
Pangilinan says the Economic Impact and Diversity Survey is open until the end of this month. The goal, she says, is to “understand our members’ economic contributions and the variety of businesses and organizations in our community in 2023.”
“We’ve actually partnered with WorkBC and Venture Kamloops on a workforce development conference just because we’ve heard how much labour is a challenge for businesses,” Pangilinan said. “There is always opportunity for us to work with the city to try to promote job opportunities that are here, how great of a place Kamloops is, and then again, working alongside our partners to provide education to help the employers who might be struggling in that area.”
Labour issues in the Kamloops-area is not a new issue. In 2021, Pangilinan told Radio NL that the Chamber was looking forward to working with then newly-elected MP Frank Caputo to try and get Canadians back to work.
“Our businesses in almost every sector are experiencing extreme labour challenges. We need to address this problem right away,” she said in Sept. 2021, following the federal election.
Pangilinan also told City Council this week that an analysis done last year by the Kamloops Chamber in partnership with Chambers from Armstrong and Spallumcheen, Clearwater, Salmon Arm, and Lillooet, found that employers and job seekers had different priorities when it came to incentives. It found that while employers focused on work environments and benefits, job seekers valued things like work-life balance and salary.
“Employers in the region, similar to the rest of B.C., identified finding qualified candidates that match the job description as their primary challenge,” the Kamloops Chamber said, in a summary of its meeting.
“In contrast, jobseekers in the region cited finding jobs that are geographically convenient and align with their desired working conditions as their most common challenges, deviating from the provincial trend where jobseekers prioritize finding jobs that meet their salary expectations.”
You can find the Economic Impact and Diversity Survey here.