As a Canadian, I was deeply ashamed to learn of the remains of 215 Indigenous children found on the site of a residential school in Kamloops. As a mom, I am horrified and struggled to explain residential schools and their role in our living history to my 9-year son. Last week, I and several go2HR staff were privileged to be part of a virtual healing ceremony led by Indigenous Tourism of BC (ITBC). It was a real honor to be part of such an intimate, emotional circle and I thank ITBC for creating the opportunity. The culture, song and language – it was all so beautiful. I left more knowledgeable of the past wrongs and acutely aware that I had more to learn.
June is Indigenous History Month across Canada. BC’s Indigenous community is a vital part of our industry, our communities, our province and our country. ITBC and Destination BC have collaborated on some great webinars throughout the month to help you learn more about Indigenous tourism in BC. Check out our events calendar to register.
As the BC Restart plan is anticipated to kick into Step 2 on June 15th, it’s important to continue your workplace efforts to keep workers, guest and communities safe. As provincial health orders move to guidelines, it will remain important to adjust your COVID-19 safety plan. We will continue to be your go to resource for assistance. Continue to watch our channels for more information on that next month.
As a tourism and hospitality business, you now have free access to BSAFE™, our new COVID-19 health and safety training course geared for staff and supervisors in the tourism and hospitality industry. The training provides employees and managers with a strong foundation in COVID-19 health and safety protocols and assists them in understanding evolving best practices. Sign up is easy and I encourage you to incorporate BSAFE™ into your staff training initiatives today.
Our vaccine rollout in BC has come a long way and continues to proceed positively. Questions about vaccines and the workplace come into our office daily. Check out our new employer focused vaccine responsibility page which will assist in answering your questions. With our industry partners, we will also be holding a vaccine responsibility webinar June 15th to dive deeper into the issue. Register here.
Many businesses ramping up are experiencing labour challenges. COVID-19 has wiped away many of the gains made in the past years, has significantly worsened pre-pandemic issues, and presents new ones. We are looking at short and longer terms solutions and will continue to keep you up to date. In the interim, don’t forget about our job board where we regularly connect employers to qualified job seekers.
Since the start of the year, we have been digging into labour market information (LMI) to better understand the current employment state, future needs, and worker profile. We need this information to support workforce recovery. In July, we will launch our Employment Tracker that will report employment statistics by sector and region. And later in the summer, to support the ongoing research, we will ask for your and your staff’s participation in an important survey to better understand the workforce in order to develop a sustained strategy going forward.
Stay Safe,
Krista
