Big White Ski Resort near Kelowna has 800 job openings this winter, which should be great news for a community with high unemployment.
But during a visit to the resort's job fair, CTV News found that a majority of applicants were from out of the country.
A lot of Australians. A lot of New Zealanders.
The lack of local job applicants at Big White has come as a bit of a surprise,
"We are a bit surprised we haven't seen more applications from Kelowna. We always do strive to hire within Kelowna," said Blair Ireland of the Big White Ski Resort.
The likely reason locals are passing up jobs on the mountain?
The jobs they had were in areas like manufacturing and construction -- jobs that generated good income that can't easily be replaced by working on a ski hill.
"Well, people need year-round jobs, their mortgages are due every month of the year. They can't survive on a job that's only four or five months," said Barbara Miller with the Kelowna Career Resource Centre.
The number of people receiving employment insurance in Kelowna was just over 1,600 at the end of the 2008 summer. That number increased to more than 4,000 this past summer.
"We're seeing people coming in from manufacturing, for instance -- big companies laying off numbers of people like 50, 60, a hundred, or more," Miller said.
The wait for an appointment at the resource centre can take as long as three weeks now.
For people who are interested in working at Big White, a job fair is being held at the Best Western Hotel in Kelowna Friday from noon to 8 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
For more information go to www.bigwhite.com
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Kent Molgat
