By Ruby Pratka
Local Journalism Initiative
A representative of the human resources department of the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS has said the agency is “worried” about the possible impact of the ongoing housing shortage on public sector recruitment.
Marc-Antoine Rouillard, assistant director of human resources at the CIUSSS, was reacting to a report by the provincewide nonprofit Place aux Jeunes suggesting that hundreds of young professionals living in cities have had to decline job offers in the regions after they were unable to find appropriate housing close enough to work. Private and nonprofit sector employers in Brome-Missisquoi have also raised concerns about the impact of housing on recruitment.
“Like all major industries, we’re worried by it. We haven’t felt a major impact yet; it’s not a brake on recruitment at this time, but it is starting to be a concern,” said Marc-Antoine Rouillard.
Rouillard said the agency hires about 3,200 people each year and is currently seeking to fill about 3,000 positions, both frontline health professionals and administrative roles. Once candidates from outside the region are hired, the CIUSSS works with community organizations “who help us help people get housing and bank accounts and daycare.” He said spending on community organizations to support the integration of new arrivals has quintupled – from $20,000 to $120,000 per year – since before the pandemic, as housing and daycare have become harder to find. Finding housing is hardest in the Granby region, Rouillard said. “The inoccupancy rate is very low, and sometimes there are places available but there’s an issue of [affordability].”
Rouillard said the CIUSSS and its nonprofit partners are “super aware of the issues” and working together to attract and support new employees. “If ever [housing] becomes a serious obstacle, it will raise a whole host of additional challenges,” he added.
Housing is also one of many concerns for municipalities seeking staff. “Recruitment is always an issue in the municipal sector, and the housing shortage doesn’t help,” Pascal Smith, director general of the Ville de Sutton, told the BCN. He said one prospective employee hadn’t been able to take a job offer at the city because of a lack of housing; the housing shortage has also created difficult situations for employers.
Over the past few years, the city has passed regulations allowing people to build additional outbuildings on their property, and tightened regulations on short-term rentals and building conversions, “to hopefully get more [housing] units back on the market.”
“Most of our personnel lives elsewhere. That doesn’t cause any major difficulties, but it does reduce my candidate pool [for certain roles]. There are still enough staff living here that we have our finger on the pulse of the city,” Smith said.