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Hotel
The hotel has twenty-four rooms and operates a dining room
geared to the needs of its hotel patrons. There are no choices
on the menu and meals may be purchased by townspeople. The
cook is encouraged to offer home-cooked meals. Country foods
may be ordered by guests in advance and include caribou, musk-ox,
and arctic char. The hours of operation are 7:30 a.m. to 7:30
p.m. There is an in-house bakery, which provides baked goods
to the hotel and sells the rest to the public. Ten people
handle cleaning, cooking, and baking in the hotel. Most receive
on-the-job training, since few have any previous experience.
No liquor is served in the restaurant in compliance with a
motion supported by local Co-op members banning alcoholic
beverages. A liquor license can be obtained for special occasions,
for example for a wedding reception, in the meeting rooms.
The bakery was started in the hotel seven years ago as a government
project. People who showed an interest in that area were given
training. Turnover is high because it is a hot, demanding
job. After the Co-op took the bakery over, they tried supplying
other communities with baked goods. There was a strong demand
for their products but the transportation costs were prohibitive.
Bill explains, "I shipped the same type of seventy-five pound
package to Resolute Bay, Calgary, and to Norman Wells. It
cost $208 to ship to Resolute Bay, $123 to Norman, and $87
to ship it to Calgary. The freight rate from Cambridge Bay
to Winnipeg is $1.00 a kilo and to Spence Bay is $3.25 a kilo.
The freight rates killed us. They had to start selling a loaf
of bread for $6.00 which is too expensive."
Taxi,
Courier Contract, and Cable Services
Bill organizes the taxi service, which is offered seven days
a week from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. The Co-op has three vehicles.
Two are used for fares from the hotel, from the airport, and
around town. The third vehicle is used to deliver mail from
the airport to the government buildings. In the summertime,
there are two full-time drivers, with Bill filling in as required.
They have four full-time cabbies in the wintertime.
Prior to the purchase of the Cable Company, the hotel received
one television station. It now receives thirteen channels.
Licensing requirements are specific to each Co-op business.
The Co-op has licenses for import and export, radio, tobacco,
fur dealing, food, as well as a local business license. It
also carries a firearms certificate.
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Bill is heavily involved in all operations at the local and
the territorial level. He enjoys travel to other communities
but does find the demands on his time with the fishery to
be trying at times. He says, "I try to take the weekends off
but it's very hard unless I go and hide. My wife is a teacher
and usually takes extra courses in the summer so she and I
are busy at the same time. She sits on the local Co-op's board
of directors and is involved at that level."
Staff
Locating and keeping reliable, skilled employees is the major
problem facing the retail outlet, the fishery, the taxi service,
and (to a lesser extent) the hotel. There are twenty-seven
full-time employees, with seasonal employment at the fishery
adding forty or fifty more. Turnover is constant, and people
rotate through companies in the community. They will work
at the Co-op, the Northern Store, then for the government
or a private corporation.
There are few trained local people for the more skilled positions.
Many of the people who have been trained work for the government.
The Co-op's policy is to hire locally if possible; to bring
someone into the community is second best. John describes
the difficulties in attracting someone to the community. "I
think one of the hardest things is to get mature people for
management positions in the North. We want more mature people,
but a person in their late forties is usually set in their
life. They don't like to move to the North, so it is very
difficult for us to find suitable candidates."
These problems of high turnover and a finite skilled labour
pool have implications for the five-year plan. The Co-op cannot
expand or try business opportunities that require a large
number of employees. It seems to have reached a plateau where
it can operate successfully with the staff situation. Several
strategies are being employed to address these staffing problems.
Education and training are promoted among the young people
and adults in the community. A greater number of skilled people
to draw on locally will mean more options for further development
of Co-op businesses. Bill comments:
"Arctic College provides different courses.
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There are problems however, because first of all, people
have to want to go take upgrading and other courses; and
second, once they decide to try, often courses are too hard
because they don't have the required background. For example,
to take a good bookkeeping course you need grade 10 or more.
I took two courses but I just couldn't go through the whole
thing because it was tough."
Older people seem to have a greater desire to upgrade their
education than a number of young people, who drop out of
school and don't have the skills to get good paying jobs.
The kids that have graduated from grade 12 and want to go
on to college or university are now working for the government
at wages between $11 and $17 an hour. We just can't afford
to pay them that kind of money when they come back to the
community."
Other strategies include increasing salaries and benefits
to compete with the government, better staff recognition,
and increased staff responsibility. Bill states, "With better
profits, we plan to start paying better salaries. For reliable
staff, we will try to accommodate their requests for holidays
and sometimes may help pay their airfare."
Bill describes a new policy. "We are trying to let people
know that they are doing a good job by presenting awards
at our annual meeting. ACL is encouraging all co-ops to
recognize their staff in some manner."
Bill will hire anyone who can handle the job. This includes
handicapped people and members of the same family. All employees
are treated equally and are given a chance to work through
any problems. Bill notes, "We try to work out difficulties
but we keep that code in mind about three times late or
three times not to work without a reason are grounds for
divorce between you and your job."
Bill describes his philosophy. "I try to give staff responsibility
because it gives them input into the operation and they
will be encouraged to perform. It takes time, but it will
happen. I have a deaf and dumb girl on the checkout there.
I've given her a little responsibility and she's really
picking it up. We also have handicapped people in the hotel
and at the fish plant. They are tremendous people to work
with and if you give them a little bit of responsibility
you see them meet the challenge. It's almost like a football
player that you work with closely and in the end, you get
results."
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