After 13 years opening and managing at Four Seasons hotels across North America, I returned home to Tofino, B.C., in 1995, to launch a long-imagined family project: the Wickaninnish Inn. We opened in 1996 with 46 rooms and, by 2003, we had 75. When guests pull up to the hotel someone greets them at the gatehouse. Then our front-desk staff check them in and give them a personal tour of the hotel, while a valet brings their luggage to the room so that it appears there like magic. That kind of service takes an army. Hiring and maintaining enough staff has been one of the hardest parts of operating the business since day one.

In nearly three decades of running the Wick, I can’t recall a summer when we’ve been fully staffed. Tofino is an entrepreneurial town: only 2,500 people live here but we have over 700 active business licences, which means most locals run their own ventures rather than working tourism jobs. The town attracts more than 600,000 visitors each year, and the Wick, one of the largest employers in Tofino, swells to over 200 staff in the summer. The local labour pool simply isn’t large enough to fill entry-level positions like stewards and room attendants, let alone specialized roles like sommeliers and pastry chefs. In a service-focused industry, every interaction counts—one negative experience can sour a guest’s entire stay. That’s why we’re highly selective about hiring, even if it shrinks an already shallow labour pool. Our HR director attends job fairs at hospitality and culinary schools across Canada every year, and we still struggle to find enough qualified people. Fewer Canadians are willing to move for work and leave behind family, friends and their social networks than a generation ago. Young Canadians, in particular, are drawn to the cities, where career opportunities and entertainment options are plentiful and varied.

For the last 20 years, we’ve recruited foreign........

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