BEAVER CREEK │ BUSINESS Z

Business Growth in Rural Yukon is Limited by a Lack of Available, Ready-to-Work Employees

KEY CONCEPTS: business growth limits, work readiness, education gap, family and community

This small business highlighted the repeating theme for rural Yukon regarding drug and alcohol abuse and its implications for employers. However, this employer identified the major barrier to full employment for the community, for people with and without disabilities, was education and work readiness.

This employer identified that young people in rural Yukon struggle to complete their education given the standard route to complete high school requires they leave their community and live in Whitehorse as teenagers in their final years of school. This employer believes this break in the family and community lives of students is the reason students struggle at this critical stage in their education.

This employer also emphasised that there is plenty of work in the area during summer months and a good pool of potential employees. The problem for employers is getting the lack of motivated and skilled candidates. Again, this employer emphasised the main barrier to employment as appropriate levels of education and work-readiness as a part of this.

A positive story of perseverance and the power of the entrepreneurial spirit was shared in a story of a friend and business acquaintance of this employer, who, in his 90’s journeys hundreds of kilometres by car before making numerous flights into the backcountry to stock his lodge for his clients – making the return journey in a single day, and stopping only for a cup of coffee on the way. And while we can’t be certain that a man in his 90’s has necessarily acquired any level of disability as a natural function of his age, we can at least assume that in this case, any barriers to mobility and functional skills have been overcome to enable him to carry on with his work. An inspiring story that reminds us about what is possible.

This employer emphasised the importance of family and community for sustainable business and nurturing work-readiness and availability. Simply put, this employer identified that even staff who were recruited from outside Yukon for season work tended to find it difficult to stay on in employment and remain a reliable and committed part of the workforce. This employer suggested the problem could be pinned on lack of community and family support – which could result in the employee getting involved in drugs and alcohol and a culture of neglecting responsibilities at work.

As a final point of interest, this employer suggested that business development in the communities is in fact limited by the lack of available employees – and that business could expand if there was a solution to the deficit of qualified, motivated potential staff. This is an important issue that has implications for the whole of Yukon, and represents an opportunity for action to increase the economic activity in communities, and, as a result, increase opportunities for all.