B.C. ski resort offers free season passes to residents who provide rental housing for overseas staff

While snowfall is still months away, a busy Vancouver-area ski resort is already in full hiring mode.

”You can imagine what it’s like hiring an army during the winter,” said Simon Whitehead, the marketing manager for Mt. Seymour Ski Resort in North Vancouver. “We are doing interviews, we are reading resumes, we are recruiting as fast as we can for the season.”

And that recruiting goes well beyond Metro Vancouver. About half of the ski hill’s 500 seasonal staff are from overseas, with Australia, Germany at the UK at the top of the list.

“There aren’t enough locals who want to work at a ski resort,” said Whitehead.

But he says when overseas recruits arrive, they inevitably have trouble finding affordable rental housing.

“It happens every year. We get some wonderful people who want to come work with us, and they take a look around Vancouver and they take a look around at how much it costs for their accommodation, and they do leave and we do lose staff,” said Whitehead.

So on Tuesday, the ski hill emailed its season pass holders with an offer. “We are basically saying: Do you have a basement suite? Do you have a second property? Do you have a suitable space where you can potentially have some of our staff for the season?” said Whitehead.

Anyone who can offer housing to an out-of-country Mt. Seymour employee will get their family season ski pass for free. The program was effective last season, and management hopes even more homes are found this year.

“This is to make sure our liftie supervisor, our liftie leads and team leads for ski school, all those people have somewhere to live. And that puts us in a much stronger position going into the season,” said Whitehead.

Mt. Seymour and other ski hills can easily hire Australians because of an agreement that allows young people from down under to work in Canada for up to a year. With the federal government cracking down on the number of student visas during the housing crisis, it’s a program that could come under more scrutiny.

“If it’s one-sided, if Canadians never benefit from getting favourable employment terms in Australia and it’s all one way, then yeah, maybe we say this isn’t a particularly great relationship for us because it’s pushing up housing costs and not buying us anything. But I don’t know if that’s the case,” said UBC Professor Thomas Davidoff.

He believes officials are likely examining how many young Canadians are going to Australia for short-term work.

“If they go there, they’re emptying out housing here for six months, so the trade would be a wash,” Davidoff said. “If we say no Australians working on our ski runs, then maybe no swim instructing in Australia for young Canadians. Any kind of trade restriction, of course you worry about reciprocation.”

As it stands, Mt. Seymour and other ski hills have large pools of overseas applicants to choose from. It hopes at least 100 of its new recruits will housed by season pass holders this year. And it's hoping for a great winter.

“Specifically this year is a La Nina, and La Nina means colder and wetter than normal. It sucks for Vancouver, but it great for the local ski hills,” said Whitehead. “So we are really excited.”