Renewed labour crunch in retail, restaurants amid sixth wave
BNN Bloomberg
Businesses are struggling to cope with an apparent sixth wave of COVID, as staffing shortages hamper sectors from health care to hospitality and retail — though the interruption remains more manageable than last winter's Omicron variant surge.
After two years of on-and-off lockdowns, Rachel Reinders felt a renewed sense of hope last month as pandemic restrictions eased and spring dawned on the cusp of a new patio season.
But Reinders, who heads administration at the Lieutenant's Pump pub in Ottawa, had to scale back operations yet again, shutting down its lunchtime kitchen for a week in March because four cooks were on sick leave simultaneously.
"We're not fully staffed in the kitchen as it is, so we couldn't even really lose one. And we lost four," she said. "Those who were left behind worked double-time to pick up the slack."
Businesses across Canada are struggling to cope with an apparent sixth wave of COVID-19, as staffing shortages hamper sectors from health care to hospitality and manufacturing — though the interruption remains more manageable than last winter's Omicron variant surge.
Dr. Kevin Smith, chief executive at the University Health Network in Toronto, said Wednesday that case numbers at its hospitals have shot up in the past few days, "so much so that staffing is challenging once again."
In Montreal, parka maker Quartz Co. saw about 10 of its roughly 100 employees stay home with COVID-19 symptoms recently, though co-founder François-Xavier Robert says the absences were shorter than in January.
