COVID-19
New sanatizing regime in place for the gondolas at Sunshine Village Ski Resort precautions for their trip, including masks, hand sanitizer and gloves. They have already made the conscious decision to take a taxi, not transit, to keep themselves as safe as possible - although she is worried about an overnight layover their flight has to make in Los Angeles before they arrive in Vancouver. That’s because their insurance won’t cover them if they get sick in the United States. Nevertheless, Green says, “I’m excited to see the beautiful mountains, a new culture, and different food. I am excited to ski in actual powder and meet new people!”
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NOV/DEC 2020
CALGARYJOURNAL.CA
Nor will Green be alone. About 50 percent of staff at both Lake Louise Ski Resort and Sunshine Village are international workers, according to Markham and Kendra Scurfield, director of communications for Sunshine Village. “Right now we are seeing some positive numbers coming in, so we’re hoping we will be able to run everything much like a normal season, but we are going to have a slightly smaller team this year than we have had in previous years,” says Scurfield. That’s good news because, despite having fewer international workers this year, the ski hills aren’t expecting a decrease in guest numbers.
PHOTO: COURTESTY OF KENDRA SCURFIELD “In the wintertime, about 80-90 per cent of our guests are regional guests. International and US guests really only make up a little over 10 per cent. We believe that people are still eager to get out in Alberta, B.C, Saskatchewan and Manitoba and enjoy activities outside,” says Markham. That means ski resorts have been forced to get creative to recruit the employees they need to support those visitors. Rather than having companies such as the Working Holiday Club provide a list of foreign applications, resorts have turned to Canadian specific job boards, career fairs and students.
These new tactics seem to be working. COVID-19 has left many people without work, and the ski hills have a surplus of new job openings. “We’ve seen significant growth in interest from students who are just graduating high school and delaying a year or two of their college or they’re currently in university and are waiting a year before they go back. They’re looking for opportunities, as well as folks who are retired and are looking for something to do for the wintertime since they can’t cross the border and go south,” explains Markham. But the resorts those new employees will be working at will look slightly different this year. Both Sunshine Village and Lake Louise Ski Resort have put in place new measures to ensure their guest’s safety during the pandemic. These new precautions include outdoor heated tents, reduced capacity in indoor spaces, outdoor washrooms and mandatory face coverings. “The biggest change we have for the 2020/2021 ski season is that face coverings will be mandatory to ride all of our lifts and to enter any of our buildings and facilities. A face covering can include a neck warmer, a mask or a scarf, it just has to cover your face,” explains Scurfield. The lifts and gondolas will also look a little different this season. “Our gondola will be running as normal, but we will be encouraging guests to load their own equipment so we don’t risk touching it and there will be team members there to help them with it,” says Scurfield. “We of course will try to accommodate people to load in their cohorts, but on busy days it will have to be loaded at capacity. We will also be sanitizing our gondolas a lot more frequently.” Both resorts are encouraging guests to purchase season passes and to do as much booking online as they can. This will streamline the process, prevent long lines and reduce the need to be inside in general. With these precautions in place, the resorts expect the guest experience to be comfortable and safe. “Once you are up on the ski resort, our terrain has enough cubic acres to accommodate 26 000 skiers and snowboarders throughout a day. On a typical busy day, we at Sunshine Village will have about 6000 skiers and snowboarders, so when people are skiing there’s a lot of room for them to spread out,” says Scurfield.