On January 25th, the North Vancouver Chamber presented our inaugural “The State of Business 2022”. We appreciate our guest speakers’ insight and diverse perspectives during this panel discussion and thank them for participating. As a catalyst for a thriving, connected community through strong partnerships and informed members, the North Vancouver Chamber is proud to have hosted this event.
Keynote Speaker: Peter Leitch – President, North Shore Studios/Mammoth Studios
Re: Motion Picture Industry during the pandemic: “We had an advantage over other industries and still do today… We had a closed environment which is a huge advantage to us, where we can really enforce safe protocol procedures.”
Re: Trades: “We are also seeing a huge demand for trades in our industry – electricians, carpenters, etc., where it really depends on how the rest of the economy is going.”
Duana Kipling – President, Neptune Terminals
Re: Supply Chain: “Supply chain challenges have been incredible. A tremendous amount of people rely on them… Working as part of the industry, making sure we all do our part, is a key driver on how we are making our business decisions.”
Re: Trade: “The days are gone where you can go out and hire the perfect person who has all the skills and experience you are looking for, and so as an employer, how do we have programs that develop the capabilities that people need?”
Paul Dangerfield – President, Capilano University
Re: Transportation/Housing: “Transportation is absolutely critical, especially what we are seeing during the pandemic, but the new model going forward is, how many of us know that we will look to modify our workforce, so that our employees, other than the trades folks, will be looking to travel wherever their workplace is, one or two days a week; maybe it’s 3-4 days a week and the rest of the time they want to work at home, so the housing needs to allow them to work from home, the transportation is going to need to allow them to be on the North Shore.
Rushabh Jhaveri – VP, Commercial Banking North Shore, RBC Royal Bank
Re Talent pool: “There is definitely a ‘war for talent’; people are finding creative ways but I think – what are some of the positions that are coming from this? The focus on retention and learning, development and skill-building is more than I have ever seen before… In the last two years, I have seen that employee-focus is tremendous …more employers are open to transferable skills than they have been in the past.”
Wendy McCulloch – Executive Director, Impact North Shore
Re Labour Shortage: “It is undeniable that one of the more significant factors affecting us all is a labour shortage. In a recent survey that we did with 50 local employers, 67% said that they have experienced labour and skills shortages as a result of COVID and 80% believe that this shortage poses a problem for their business.”
