Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press Posted Saturday, 18 June 2022 15:01 EDT Last Updated on Saturday, 18 June 2022 15:45 EDT
Although health restrictions have been lifted and demand has returned, summer camp operators across the country say they are struggling with staffing problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Craig Douglas, executive director of Timberline Ranch in Maple Ridge, BC, said Saturday that it was harder to hire staff this year than in any of the previous 16 years he has been with the organization.
Douglas, also vice-president of the British Columbia Camps Association, said Timberline is not alone: many campers have been forced to cut back on programs or accept fewer campers because they can’t find enough people to work with.
“The end result, unfortunately, is that fewer children will be able to go to camp this summer,” he said.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced many camps to close completely by 2020 and then operate under strict restrictions last summer. This year, with health restrictions virtually gone, operators hoped to return to normalcy and, in the case of private camps, start recovering losses, Douglas said.
But the closures cut a key source of staff for many camps, he added. Campers who age summer programs will often return in the next few years to work as counselors, and operators depend on that pipeline, he said. The COVID-19 pandemic broke this chain link.
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Restaurants and retail stores are also struggling to find employees, he said, which means future camp counselors have a plethora of summer jobs to choose from.
Timberline, which is a charity, has increased salaries, shortened the work week and established various activities and benefits for staff in an effort to attract workers, Douglas said. The camp usually employs about 80 people for its 24-day campers and 144 overnight stays. With staff training starting on Friday, he said the organization is still missing about five key people.
In Ontario, Raf Choudhury is also struggling to find staff for his summer camps at Baseline Sports in the northern Toronto area. Choudhury usually hires between 15 and 20 people each summer, but this year he has only been able to hire five so far.
“I think there’s more demand, but we can’t keep up with the demand for staffing issues,” Choudhury said.
“Even if I wanted to expand and go to more locations, it’s not feasible at the moment.”
Choudhury also hires young people, usually teenagers between the ages of 18 and 20, to oversee his three outdoor sports camps. After two years of a global pandemic, they seem to have other priorities, he said.
“I think people are realizing that there is more to do and they are willing to sacrifice work for that,” he said.
Nick Georgiade, director of Temagami Camp in northeastern Ontario, said staffing is a challenge for him every year, and so far this year, he has had no more difficulty finding people.
Rather, this year’s challenges come from the courses and certifications needed to work at Camp Temagami, which offers canoe trips to areas as far away as Labrador, he said.
During the pandemic, these wildlife first aid and survival courses were not offered, which means that the staff who led the trips this year needed a lot of expensive training and recertification and was time consuming. Georgiade said his company organized it and paid for it.
“You basically have to make it as easy for them as possible, or that’s a barrier to entry,” he said.
It’s another substantial cost in a year of high inflation, he said, adding that he expects only food costs to be 20 to 25 percent higher this year.
“The cost of everything has gone up drastically,” he said. “And our rates were set in September for this summer.”
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on June 18, 2022.