Limbo ends in non-existent positions for former Squire’s staff

We’ve reached out to Canalta for comment, but no one was available.

The casino had previously purchased Squire’s, and had been in the process of renovating the Southside Events Centre in order to move from their current location at the Medicine Hat Lodge.

According to one of the letters viewed by CHAT News, alternate employment is now being offered to the former Squire’s workers at the Boston Pizza franchise in Box Springs Business Park.

However, at least one former employee has been left out of the new positions, and has described feeling burnt by what he see’s as the limbo Squire’s employees had been in for the past few months. Trent Doran, a former cook at the shuttered pub, spoke with CHAT News about his experiences since the purchase.

“It’s been very frustrating,” said Doran. “I’ve worked at a series of restaurants and location in the city, I’ve never in my life experienced the problems I’ve experienced here.”

According to Doran, employees at Squire’s were at first told that once the pub was purchased, they would be working for the casino. As time went on, however, that plan changed.

Doran indicated that Kevin Van Der Kooy, who runs the Medicine Hat Casino, eventually came to Squire’s a week prior to the close of the restaurant, and told employees they would have paid time off during the shutdown, as well as shifts at the casino packing up materials for the eventual move.

He says he signed a contract laying out those duties, working for five subsequent pay cheques, and was then verbally laid off on September 12, with the rest of the Squire’s staff. However, Doran says they were never provided actual termination notices.

Doran stated that throughout the shut-down process, he found communication between the casino administration and Squire’s staff difficult.

He made repeated attempts after September 12 to figure out whether or not he had a position with the casino as a cook, eventually being told to attend a job fair for a cook position with Canalta. Declining to go to the job fair, he has since reached out to Alberta Labour Standards to resolve the matter.

Doran says he only received a termination notice after he threatened to file a complaint with the provincial organization. In it the Casino by Vanshaw informed him that he was fired as of August 21, 2017.

Doran says he submitted the complaint Thursday November 16. He’s looking for over $5,000 in back pay and compensation for his wasted time. He adds he may also file a small claims case.

While his personal situation is still being sorted out, he wanted to speak out about his treatment and the overall process that led to Squire’s employees hanging in limbo for the past three months.

“When we first started it all, and we were all told, it seemed like we were going to be all together,” said Doran.

“It seemed like they (the casino) were more than happy to keep the staff, you’d think they would be, not having to hire more staff. They were coming in regularly, talking to us. As soon as they closed, that’s when they stopped communication.”

Doran indicated he would have preferred to know about his job being gone sooner, rather than later, and said he viewed what had taken place as an “offence to the employees.”

“They came in and made us all promises, said no, we’d like for you to stay around, and then as soon as everybody stuck around, sat there for two months with no ROE’s (Record of Employment), no jobs, no way to get unemployment insurance, and then “oh, we don’t need you anymore, you can go work at Boston Pizza,”.

Doran is now hoping to get everything cleared up, and would like to see some action from the casino towards the former Squire’s employees in light of what they had been through.

“Maybe even an apology, even a returned phone call, that would be nice,” said Doran.

CHAT News had previously reported that the Casino by Vanshaw had been looking at re-locating to the Box Springs Business Park, while undergoing a formal process to move to the Southside Events Centre.

According to Heather Holmen, the communications manager for the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission, the licensing process for the Southside location is still underway, with no formal notification by the casino of any intentions to head to Box Springs.

“Even if it did, right now, the only focus that we have is the application for them to re-locate to the Southside Events Centre,” said Holmen.

“We wouldn’t consider anything other than a formal application as official notification that they are looking at moving.”

CHAT News reached out to Van Der Kooy to get his views on the chain of events that resulted for former Squire’s employees. While he couldn’t provide exact information on what had taken place in Doran’s situation, he indicated that the original plan had been to keep employees on staff.

“There was a time issue there,” said Van Der Kooy.

“The original plan was to keep everybody, almost everybody employed, and because of certain circumstances, there was delays in the opening of the casino. So, then I believed Canalta moved to hire certain people in other positions. A lot of people went to Boston Pizza, some to the Keg, they had job fairs. All efforts were made to make sure that everybody was taken care of.”

According to Van Der Kooy, the ongoing court case concerning the casino’s lease at the Medicine Hat Lodge had been the main factor in the delay.

“These types of things are very fluid, and they’re very difficult, and they require a lot of attention. Certainly there was no ill intention implied, implemented. We tried to do the best for everybody that we could, and we still continue to do that.”

He couldn’t comment on when the case might be resolved, but said he hoped for it to be done as quickly as possible. He declined to discuss plans for the casino’s eventual location, but stated that the “lions share” of renovations at the Southside Events Centre for the move were finished.

As for Doran’s statements on the handling of Squire’s employees after the closure of the pub, Van Der Kooy did not confirm or deny that paid time off or work at the casino was offered.

“Certainly, there was no contract, and I have no comment on it at all,” said Van Der Kooy.

“It’s very simple. The casino is a completely different type of business. Anybody that was working at Squire’s, wouldn’t need to be employed in the food and beverage sector. There would have been no migration from Squire’s, to the casino, for any of the employees, that was all handled by Canalta and they got placed in other food and beverage positions in the city.”

When pressed on whether or not there had been work undertaken at the casino by former Squire’s employees, Van Der Kooy said he “can’t speak to that”.

“I can’t say that that’s not true, to a certain extent, until they got placed in the food and beverage industry,” said Van Der Kooy.

“We’ve always tried to keep people employed, we would never want anybody to be unnecessarily unemployed.”

When asked what he would want to say to any of the former employees, he offered an apology.

“I certainly wouldn’t want anyone to go through duress, and certainly as a corporation we tried to place everybody, and do the best we could for everybody that was involved,” said Van Der Kooy.

“Certainly, things get misunderstood, things get overlooked, and if that’s the circumstance, than I truly apologize.”

The fate of the casino’s lease remains before the courts.

by James Wood/Leah Murray

Limbo ends in non-existent positions for former Squire’s staff

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