Oilfields - Amalgamation vote delayed

Vote on Turner Valley and Black Diamond merger expected to be held in October

By Pamela Roth
Staff reporter

A plebiscite that was supposed to be held in the spring to determine if the towns of Turner Valley and Black Diamond should amalgamate has been pushed back to the fall.
Since last year, councils from the two towns have been meeting once a month to discuss the details of amalgamation and what the process would entail.
According to Stan Ogrodniczuk, chief administrative officer (CAO) in Turner Valley, there is still much information to be collected before council takes the issue to the public.
“We are making sure we are not going to be looking at anything drastically different than what we are used to,” said Ogrodniczuk. “So far, our taxes are pretty much dead on and the utility rates — we just have to find out what it’s going to look like once we do amalgamate.”
Thus far a number of projects and issues have been identified in order to bring the two communities together.
One of those issues is the effect amalgamation has on property assessment and taxation, along with comparing utility rates and determining a common method of rate calculation.
Another issue currently being examined by both councils is the estimated costs to make one facility the municipal office and the other facility the library building.
In order to speed up the amalgamation process, the two towns will meet twice a month starting in September in order to make sure an October plebiscite is still possible.
“We are still going strong, but there is a lot of work that has to be done before the public can have their input,” said Ogrodniczuk. “Nothing is for sure until council makes a final decision, so the public will be asked to be involved pretty soon.”
The two towns are only two miles apart and already share a number of services and equipment, such as an RCMP detachment, hospital, ambulance service and high school.
Although the matter has been broached in the past, it wasn’t until November that the two councils sat down with Alberta Municipal Affairs to investigate the possibility of amalgamation.
From those discussions, both councils agreed that amalgamating would bring a lot of positives to the communities and vowed to keep the public involved as they inch towards a fall plebiscite.

Who wants a kiss?

Andrew Zylstra, 3, of Okotoks plays with a donkey at the petting zoo which was part of the annual Southridge Village Mall Stampede pancake breakfast on Saturday morning in Okotoks. photo by John Barlow

Business - Local labour shortages taking a toll

Businesses are forced to cutback hours due to staffing shortages

By Laurel Nadon
Staff reporter

Foothills businesses are facing such extreme staffing shortages that they’re being forced to cut back on hours and offer new incentives to get potential employees in the door.
Brett Baer, operations manager at Dairy Queen in Okotoks, said there’s a huge staff shortage in the area. They have a total of 25 full-time and part-time staff, which is about nine or 10 fewer employees than at this time last year. In the past year, applications coming across his desk have dropped by 50 per cent.
“It puts us in a hard position to provide good customer service and to maintain full hours of operation,” Baer said.
He added that he would typically expect to see more applications in June for summer work, but that hasn’t been the case this year.
The store hasn’t been able to switch to its summer hours with an 11 p.m. close because, as Baer says, they just don’t have the manpower.
“It’s a huge predicament for anyone in this industry when it’s driven by speed and service and we don’t have the staff to provide that,” Baer said, adding that preventing burnout of the staff they have is a top issue.
He said that their entry level pay has stayed the same despite the shortage as they can’t justify paying someone $15 an hour to learn the ropes.
“If you’re doing great work, you’ll get paid for doing great work,” Baer said.
He noted that many communities in Alberta are having the same problem due to the booming economy, but that Calgary has it a lot worse than Okotoks.
Jordan Hick, the assistant general manager at Boston Pizza, said they’re hiring younger and less experienced staff due to the shortage. He said that while they currently have a full slate of staff, he is not sure how long that will last.
“Come fall, we’re expecting to be a little short once everyone goes back to school,” Hick said. “We get waves where we get a ton of applications and waves where we can’t pay people to come in.”
He noted that Calgary’s Boston Pizza locations have it even worse. “They can’t find people at all,” Hick said. “There are so many jobs right now, everyone’s short staffed.”
As a result, Hick said they have started paying staff more and are offering other incentives such as more staff parties. Staff recently had a Stampede party and they plan to go paintballing this September.
“We try to do more group activities to keep things fun and keep the staff we have,” Hick said.
Employees who bring in another staff member who works there for a minimum of three months can also earn a $100 bonus.
Kelly Sonne, general manager at Wendy’s, said the situation has gotten to the point where they are 18 per cent below their staffing requirements. The restaurant should have a roster of 40 full and part time staff and instead they have 28 employees.
Sonne said they noticed a shortage of staff about a month and a half ago and that now it’s next to impossible to hire.
“Sales have gone down. There’s not enough people to put the orders through fast enough,” Sonne said.
Wendy’s has even had a couple of days where they’ve been forced to close two or three hours early because they simply don’t have the manpower.
“We haven’t had a lot of complaints, most people are pretty understanding,” Sonne said, adding that they have had customers who see the line up and simply walk away. “It’s very discouraging. You know how it’s supposed to run and you have goals and expectations.”
The shortage is also difficult on existing staff and Sonne said they have put incentives in place to make it more appealing to stay.
Employees who bring in another staff member for a minimum of three months can earn a $200 bonus. Wendy’s has also held hiring fairs, a flyer drop, developed a rewards program and is looking at holding employee outings. They’re also hiring staff at $1 per hour more than before the shortage.