Although health restrictions have been lifted, some summer camp managers say they are struggling with staffing issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Baseline Sports owner and founder Raf Choudhury says he normally hires between 15 and 20 young adults to work at his summer camps in the Toronto area. But this season he has only managed to hire five people.
Mr Choudhury feels that the young people he normally recruited realized during the pandemic that they were enjoying their summer leisure and decided to work less this year or not have a job at all summery.
“I feel like there are more requests, but we can’t meet the demand due to staffing issues,” Choudhury said. Even if I wanted to expand and go to more places, it’s not feasible at the moment.
Mr. Choudhury hires young people – usually young adults between the ages of 18 and 20 – to oversee his three outdoor sports camps. After two years of global pandemic, they seem to have other priorities, he notes.
The director of Camp Temagami in northeastern Ontario, Nick Georgiade, says hiring staff is a challenge every year, however, and he hasn’t had more trouble finding people.
Camp Temagami offers canoe trips to areas as remote as Labrador. However, these canoe camps require many courses and certifications that have been halted during the pandemic, meaning Mr. Georgiade had to start hiring and arranging training for his staff much earlier in the year.
Indeed, first aid and wilderness survival courses were not offered during the health crisis. Travel staff this year had to undergo expensive training and re-certification.
Mr. Georgiade mentioned that his company organized and paid for these courses. “You basically have to make it easy for them, otherwise it’s a barrier to entry,” he said.
It’s another substantial cost in a year of high inflation, he said, adding that he expects food costs alone to be 20-25% higher this year.
The rates were established in September for this season, explained Nick Georgiade, without knowing that the cost of living would rise in this way.
Fewer children will be able to go to camps
The general manager of the Timberline Ranch in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Craig Douglas, argued on Saturday that it was harder to hire staff this year than in the previous 16 years he was with the company. .
Douglas, also vice-president of the British Columbia Camps Association, said Timberline Ranch is not alone: Many camp operators have been forced to cut programs or accept fewer campers because they don’t not find enough people to work.
“The end result, unfortunately, is that fewer kids will be able to go to camp this summer,” he explained.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced many camps to close completely in 2020 and then operate under strict sanitary measures last summer. This year, with restrictions all but gone, operators were eagerly awaiting a return to normal. Private camps were hoping to start recouping casualties, Douglas said.
But the closures have cut off a key source of staff for many camps, he added. Young people who leave summer programs often return in subsequent years to work as monitors and operators rely on this continuity, he added. The COVID-19 pandemic has broken this link in the chain.
Restaurants and retail stores are also struggling to find employees, he pointed out, which means future camp counselors have a myriad of summer jobs to choose from.
Timberline, which is a charity, has increased wages, shortened the work week and implemented several staff activities and benefits in an effort to attract employees, Douglas said. The camp normally employs around 80 people for its 24 day campers and 144 for overnight. With staff training starting on Friday, the organization is still short of five key employees.