Hospitality Newfoundland and Labrador is asking Ottawa to look at a variety of solutions to address the labour crunch affecting businesses right across the country.
There is a significant backlog in the federal government’s processing of immigration applications, but the Chair of HNL, Brenda O’Reilly, says there are some other “Made in Canada” solutions that the federal government can implement to help ease labour shortages, including EI reform to give workers who are collecting Employment Insurance greater flexibility on part-time work.
O’Reilly says many seniors are also willing to work, but can’t because doing so would affect their pension benefits.
She says not clawing seniors’ benefits back dollar for dollar because they want to work is another way to help fill the labour gap.