Jennifer McPhee
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (July 31/02) - High school teacher Warren Cummins recently brought a group of Japanese exchange students to a local restaurant to taste pizza for the first time.

The restaurant was almost empty when they arrived. After ordering, the group waited an hour without receiving their food. Meanwhile, other customers came to the restaurant, ordered and ate.

Eventually, someone came out and explained to the group there was a "problem in the kitchen" caused by staff shortages, said Cummins.

The group couldn't wait any longer and left without trying pizza -- but with a bad taste in their mouths.

The restaurant did not return phone calls to Yellowknifer. Cummins said the restaurant manager did offer a $200 gift certificate.

"It was embarrassing for the exchange students, embarrassing for Yellowknife and embarrassing for the restaurant," said Cummins.

"The businesses in this town need to wake up and get it together," he said. "You don't have 12-year-olds doing an adult's job."

Poor service, often caused by staff shortages, is a growing problem in Yellowknife. In June, the employment rate in the NWT surpassed all other provinces and territories at 70.7 per cent.

This leaves service industry employers desperate for staff -- and leads to the hiring of younger and younger employees.

Currently, there is no age requirement to work in the NWT although individual businesses may have policies.

Because demand for employees is so high, many jump from job to job, often leaving employers in the lurch.

Jobs were so readily available this summer, the "Hire a Student" job board was crammed with unfilled positions and many students turned up their noses at minimum wage or service industry jobs.

Currently, the minimum wage is $6 for anyone under 16 and $6.50 for those older.

But many students won't work for less than $10, said Patricia Coyne a summer employment office at the Hire a Student office.

Flipping burgers isn't considered cool, she explains. And most students are looking for jobs with "minimum effort and maximum pay."

The labour shortage crisis will only grow much worse come Aug. 15 -- dubbed "doomsday" in the service industry.

That's when older students -- usually more mature and responsible -- head back to southern schools in droves.

The latest victim

Toots Mitchell has ran the Waterfront restaurant in Old Town since last November. But she is throwing in the towel and giving up her lease today (July 31).

"I have no staff and it keeps going and going," she said. "I have one cook cooking straight through, seven days a week, 16 hours a day."

Mitchell recently brought a cook up from Edmonton. He lived in a tent in the campground but was asked to leave after two weeks.

He quit recently, walking out in the middle of a shift. Two more employees, from Australia, quit to work at the mines and another two are leaving because they can't find a place to stay, said Mitchell.

"It's unbelievable," she said. "It's sad because you put your life into something and you work so hard."

"I'm going to lose big time at the end of the month. Big time. But what can I do? There's no end to it."

Is there a solution?

Some say the answer lies in higher wages.

To keep loyal staff, you have to pay them well, says manager of Centre Square Jennifer Marchant.

She figures a fair wage is $10 or $11 an hour and a wage that makes people want to stay is $14.

Over at the Akaitcho Development Corporation, Raymond St. Arnaud thinks businesses should target mature workers and pay them more.

"A lot of retail stores are taking too many children that want the money but don't want to work," he said. "You are getting children between 10 and 14 serving you. They are taking anybody just to take anybody."

Instead, he said employers should target older or retired taking people, give them good hours and more pay.

"Then you're guaranteed if they want the job and they take it, they are going to be there at 6 o'clock in the morning," he said.

That's the advice the ADC gave Tim Hortons. "And that's why they have turned around," said St. Arnaud.

The manager of Tim Hortons said he was not allowed to speak to the media. Chris Johnston, manager of Super 8 Hotel will lose one-third of his staff when students depart in August. The hotel is also plagued with employees "who pick up their first pay cheque and leave."

Super 8 has targeted mothers looking to re-enter the workforce by offering special benefits like flex time. "We've had a few success stories," said Johnston.

The hotel also had hires employees at the mines during their two weeks out. "The only concern with that is burnout."

Super 8 is already one of the highest paying hotels around, he said. For example, housekeepers start at $11 dollars an hour, with full benefits after three months. He maintains raising wages to full market value isn't the solution.

"If I raise my wages, the mines will raise theirs," he said.

If everyone raises their wages, "the cost of going out to eat will go up and the costs of staying in hotels will go up. It will over-inflate the cost of living in Yellowknife."

Corey Gillon, manager of Wal-Mart, agrees. He said Yellowknife's Wal-Mart is the highest paying Wal-Mart in Canada.

And the turnover rate didn't drop after the company implemented significant pay increases, he said. Gillon offers up a few suggestions. The Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce could start "black listing" unreliable workers by sharing information about employees. That way, businesses wouldn't pass unreliable workers to each other, he said.

Or, governments could pull back the number of high-paying jobs offered to students in the summer, freeing them up for service industry employers. For example, a job cutting grass could go to a local landscaper instead of a student, he said.

Gillon believes a strong work ethic must be learned at home.

"When I was growing up, I wasn't allowed to miss work," he said.

The real victim is customers, he added. They are the ones faced with long lineups "when you're missing two or three people on any given day."