Timmins business owner offers cash incentive to find job applicants

Timmins -

The owner of a Timmins, Ont., bathroom showroom was surprised to see how few applications he received for a newly vacant sales role.

At least two months passed by with no responses on traditional job sites, so Denis Gelinas decided to take a different approach.

"Basically, going out to my friends and family on (social media) and offering a $200 reward if they can find somebody who fits my criteria," said Gelinas, who owns The Mermaid Gallery in Timmins.

The cash incentive drew a large response and Gelinas said he's now starting to interview candidates.

Worried he was the only small business struggling to fill jobs, Gelinas said he spoke to several other businesses in the area that are also facing this issue.

With the province currently in Stage 3 of the Ford government's reopening plan and most workplaces reopened in reduced capacities, Gelinas wonders if staffing issues are stemming from people opting to receive federal COVID-19 benefits rather than returning to work.

"You've got to bring people back to work and ... how do you do it when people are being paid a substantial amount of money to stay home," he said.

People who are unemployed or receiving half their usual income due to COVID-19 currently have access to the Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB), which provides $600 every two weeks before taxes are deducted.

According to provincial data, Ontario's unemployment rate sits at around nine per cent, down from the height of the pandemic.

In the northern Ontario region, unemployment sits at around seven per cent and a recent business confidence report from the Timmins Chamber of Commerce shows that around 20 per cent of its members have yet to restore its pre-pandemic workforce.

However, the chamber's outgoing president, Melanie Verreault, said staffing shortages could have a variety of causes.

The region's labour shortages are not a new issue, she said, and have likely been exacerbated by the pandemic. But at this point, Verreault said one of the more likely factors is a possible hesitancy to work at businesses that must operate in-person, rather than people mooching off of the CRB.

"We do actually need people back in the work environment," Verreault said. "With the issues that our members are dealing with already, adding that on top of it is making it quite stressful."

While Gelinas acknowledges that many people legitimately need financial assistance right now or cannot commit to working in a rapidly-changing pandemic environment, he believes some people are avoiding re-entering the workforce and that they are needed to help the economy bounce back.

"Everybody has a different situation and I support that 100 per cent," Gelinas said, "but there are some able bodies out there that need to come back to work."