The Fernie Chamber is hosting an online ‘Hiring Foreign Workers’ discussion on Tuesday 24 May.

The Fernie Chamber of Commerce will be hosting an information session for local businesses on the topic of hiring foreign workers. The session will be a discussion between Brad Parsell (Executive Director, Fernie Chamber) and Jenny Perez (Managing Director of PM Immigration). The session will officially launch a new partnership between the two organizations as PM Immigration helps the Fernie Chamber educate our businesses and place foreign workers in the community.

In the recently published 2021 Fernie Business Retention & Expansion (BRE) Survey and Report, lack of skilled staff was identified as the number one major barrier for local businesses to expand in Fernie. Over 50% of all responding businesses stated that employee recruitment has been a problem in the last three years, with a direct correlation between number of employees and the severity of the problem. Of the businesses that identified recruitment as an issue, 69% stated that a lack of applicants was the underlying issue. Of concern is that the problem appears poised to get worse with 47% of responding businesses indicating that they expect their number of employees to increase over the next three years.

Brad Parsell (Executive Director of the Fernie Chamber) explains, “Our organization has been very focused on the issue of labour shortages and workforce attraction over the past three years. We know there is an aging workforce in BC with more people leaving the workforce each year than new people joining. Immigration is key to Fernie’s success in employee recruitment and many immigration programs have been paused or impacted by the pandemic these past two years. We also recognize that housing workers is a crucial parallel priority. As immigration starts to open again, I strongly encourage Fernie employers to join us to learn the latest updates on how to hire a foreign worker and what programs may be most appropriate for their needs.”

The discussion will take place online via Zoom as a lunch and learn session from 12:00pm on Tuesday 24 May. The session will be recorded and made available to Chamber members to watch after the event. For details on how to register and how to join the Zoom meeting, please visit the Fernie Chamber’s website at www.ferniechamber.com