Labour Market Forum

The Labour Market Forum is a two-day working event. Over 80 participants from across the country are invited to participate because of their knowledge, expertise, and commitment towards addressing workforce challenges. They contribute to Tourism HR Canada’s mission to build a resilient, competitive, and inclusive workforce.

Tourism HR Canada was honoured to have had The Honourable Soraya Martinez Ferrada, Minister of Tourism and Minister responsible for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec, attend this year’s event.

In her speech to Forum delegates, Minister Martinez Ferrada emphasized that workers are the backbone of the tourism sector, and addressed how transport, housing, and immigration are all linked to the success of tourism and its workforce. She highlighted the need for tourism to be relevant, to share good stories, and to develop Indigenous tourism and ecotourism offerings.

She shared that as Minister of Tourism, her aim is to elevate the conversation around tourism and show it is far beyond being a “nice to have”, but rather a key economic driver right across the country.

On behalf of all attendees, Tourism HR Canada extends its sincere thanks to Minister Martinez Ferrada for her positive words and open dialogue.

Under the 2023 theme The Future Workforce Is Now, presenters and delegates exchanged ideas on a range of key topics impacting the recovery and growth of tourism across Canada:

  1. The Compensation Culture Shift: From Cost to Investment
  2. Federal Tourism Growth Strategy: Insights from National Industry Leaders
  3. Tourism Immigration Strategy: Advocacy and Action
  4. Indigenous Workforce Development Framework: Pulling the Pieces Together
  5. Tourism Workforce Eco System: Towards Improved Coordination, Coherence, Collaboration
  6. People and Place: Charting the Path Forward

The slide decks for each of these presentations can be downloaded below.

Delegates also divided up into smaller working groups, with facilitators leading them through a series of worksheets. 

Day 1 focused on a series of topics linked to a new series of resources encouraging tourism employers to dig deeper into what an innovative compensation culture offers.

On Day 2, the focus shifted to inclusive, diverse, equitable, accessible, leading employer practices:

A summary of their insights on the following topics will be made available in the near future. Downloadable copies of the worksheets are available below the presentations, for interest.

Thank you to all this year’s presenters for sharing insights, inspiring discussion, and motivating change. As a token of appreciation, Tourism HR Canada made a donation to the following two causes on behalf of each speaker: the Bill Pallett Youth Leadership Fund and Outward Bound.

2023 Labour Market Forum Presentations

Welcome to the Labour Market Forum 2023:
The Future Workforce Is Now.

Forum overview and high-level overviews of the compensation culture shift, immigration matters, the Canadian tourism ecosystem, and community-centred approaches.

Philip Mondor, President and CEO of Tourism HR Canada

Federal Tourism Growth Strategy: National Industry Leaders' Insights

This deck highlights four key national associations’ understanding of and response to the recently announced Federal Tourism Growth Strategy, as well as each organization’s recent and upcoming endeavours around workforce matters.

Beth Potter, Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC)

Susie Grynol, Hotel Association of Canada (HAC)

Keith Henry, Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada (ITAC)

*Richard Alexander, Restaurants Canada, also presented, but without slides

Building a Strong Indigenous
Work Force

This deck covers the current work that ITAC has been involved in on the labour front, presented by Keith Henry in the buildup to the fireside chat with Indigenous tourism operators and experts that was facilitated by Samantha Bradley.

This deck includes new insights gained from a recent perceptions study of Indigenous Canadians, ITAC’s new labour campaign, and an overview of its broad labour strategy.

Keith Henry, Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada (ITAC)

Growing Tourism's
Social License to Operate

This deck presents an overview of Destination Canada’s perspective on the question of social license with respect to the tourism sector. This includes an overview of resident attitudes to local visitors, a proposed framework for conceptualizing social license in tourism planning and community engagement, and some high-level statistical notes on the perceptions and attitudes of Canadians to tourism.

Michel Dubreuil, Destination Canada

Catalyst Housing: A Regenerative Approach to Solving Critical Workforce Challenges

This deck introduces a regenerative approach to solving critical workforce challenges based in the RTO12 region of Ontario. This includes some high-level observations on regenerative destination development, the role of regional specificity in tackling structural barriers to tourism employment, and a walk-through of the foundational framework of RTO12’s Catalyst Housing project.

James Murphy and Kate Monk, Explorers’ Edge (RTO12)

Printable Worksheets

Throughout the working sessions of the Labour Market Forum, participants grouped together with a faciliator to discuss and record their insights on key topics. Here are the worksheets they used, for your own inspiration and ideas.

Feel free to share these with us: info@tourismhr.ca. 

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