Hotel sector facing up to 10K Sask. layoffs due to COVID-19

Saskatchewan’s hotel industry is struggling in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, and thousands of layoffs are looming across the province.

Jim Bence, the president and CEO of the Saskatchewan Hotels and Hospitality Association (SHHA), told Gormley on Tuesday that the industry has experienced major losses in light of cancelled conferences and sports tournaments.

“We’ve lost all of our group business,” he said. “Those are all room rates that are lost.”

With events shutting down and facilities closing all over, tourists in need of a hotel room are few and far between.

That has left many hotels in a position where they are going to struggle to make payroll, Bence said.

“This may be permanent. (Hotels) might not be able to make it unless there’s some sort of relief that comes along,” he said.

He noted that, given what his members are telling him, upwards of 10,000 layoffs in the hotel and hospitality sector are possible.

But with layoffs comes another issue for hotels. Bence said there isn’t any mechanism for a temporary layoff, so by law the hotels would have to pay out their employees.

One company that owns a pair of hotels is facing a bill of more than $180,000 when the owners are struggling to just make payroll.

“This becomes a challenge that they may not be able to get over,” Bence said.

The SHHA is lobbying all levels of government for financial relief to help weather the COVID-19 storm.

Municipalities are being asked to delay or forgive parts of a hotel’s property tax bill. The province is being asked to forgive provincial sales tax payments for the time being. In addition, the SHHA is looking to the federal government for layoff support to ensure employees are taken care of while preserving the future of the industry.

If hotels do manage to push through the pandemic, Bence thinks Saskatchewan could see a surge in tourism and room bookings.

“We could be uniquely positioned to rebound from this better than other provinces can, just because of our reputation … as probably the safest province, us and Manitoba, with regards to this virus,” he said.

“When companies do release their ban on travel and they need to meet face to face, they’ll pick Saskatchewan as the place to come … But we won’t (get the business) if lots of our companies declare bankruptcy or go into receivership because they couldn’t weather the storm.”