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With less than a week to go until the vaccine passport system goes into effect throughout Saskatchewan, the hospitality industry is still trying to figure out how it will work.
Hospitality Saskatchewan CEO Jim Bence called the current situation “hectic” as industry officials work with the provincial government to figure out what the incoming system will look like.
“As our operators scramble to even find staff that exists, we’re really under a crunch to find people. Now we’ve got this piece to deal with,” Bence told Gormley on Thursday. “It’s challenging, but I just would like to be clear that our conversations with the government have been exceptional.
“Our messaging has been ‘Just keep us open (and) keep us open at full capacity. And then whatever rules you apply around that, we’ll deal with it.’ That’s the good news story here.”
The staffing crunch has been nothing short of challenging for the industry, and according to Bence, he doesn’t anticipate the industry reaching pre-pandemic staffing levels for at least the next few years.
“Many left our industry, so when you talk about an available labour pool in Saskatchewan, which is already fairly shallow, we can’t even have a diving board,” Bence said. “Now all of a sudden it’s exacerbated by these other challenges.
“Yesterday, I was on the phone with one operator who was down to two servers before one young server quit on the spot because she didn’t want to get vaccinated.”
Bence is worried that the vaccine passport system will put what is an already-dwindling labour force through abuse by people who refuse to follow the rules.
“It seems it could be fairly easy to implement, but then it comes down to the customer reaction,” he said. “When they decide that they are not going to apply the rules or stay within the guidelines, the next thing you know it’s all over social media because of how some folks choose to behave in certain situations.
“If you’re going to take all your frustrations on a 20-year-old frontline staff banquet server, what does that do for anybody? If you have got challenges with the masking policy, keep it to yourself. We just don’t need that added pressures on our frontline staff or operators.”
Proof of vaccination or proof of a negative COVID test to access some businesses, establishments and event venues in the province will start on Oct. 1.