Nov 14, 2023

Barbra Streisand sang that, “People who need people are the luckiest people in the world”. Barbra was not in the marine industry. We need people and we are not feeling very “lucky” about it. To my amazement, Barbra Streisand is still in the news and that song, People was a hit in the mid-1960s. So much has changed since then.

We are people who need people. We need marine technicians, boat builders, sales and marketing people, marina managers and more. Last week I joined a Transport Canada webinar on labour shortages in the greater marine industry.

My take-away from the two-hour webinar titled, “Labour Shortages In Canada’s Marine Transportation Sector” reminds me of another famous entertainment industry quote. It was the iconic line in the opening of the movie Cool Hand Luke, “What we have here is failure to communicate”. I’ll provide more detail in the story below but basically, we are experiencing significant labour shortages in commercial shipping and marine services like ferry operations and transportation and we don’t seem to have a simple solution.

For the recreational marine industry, some solutions are more readily available. The Boating BC Conference starts in one week on Tuesday November 21 and 22 while the Boating Ontario Conference starts the next week on November 28. Both conferences offer excellent agendas of valuable sessions as well as networking opportunities that are without equal. We wrote that these once-a-year industry conferences are a great way to really bring a new person into the business and get them connected to new friends and co-workers. We hope you have taken advantage of this opportunity. It’s not too late, even now.

Plus, here’s a freebie! Remember that the Career Opportunities section in News Week Digest has both good opportunities and also offers employers a way to advertise their career opportunities at NO CHARGE! It’s a slow time of year right now, yet there are great jobs listed. Here are three that caught my eye; C-Tow Captain, Marine and Power Equipment Product Planner with Honda and Bluffer’s Park in the GTA is looking for a marina manager.

We are fast approaching the boat show season too. That brings more opportunities to speak to potential candidates as well.

Andy Adams – Editor

PS – Barbra Streisand was in the news last week when it was revealed that she had called up Apple to complain about how Siri pronounces her name.