B.C. ski resort offers free passes in exchange for housing [Video]

While snowfall is still months away, a busy Vancouver-area ski resort is already in full hiring mode.

”You can imagine what it’s like hiring an army during the winter,” said Simon Whitehead, the marketing manager for Mt. Seymour Ski Resort in North Vancouver. “We are doing interviews, we are reading resumes, we are recruiting as fast as we can for the season.”

And that recruiting goes well beyond Metro Vancouver. About half of the ski hill’s 500 seasonal staff are from overseas, with Australia, Germany at the UK at the top of the list.

“There aren’t enough locals who want to work at a ski resort,” said Whitehead.

But he says when overseas recruits arrive, they inevitably have trouble finding affordable rental housing.

“It happens every year. We get some wonderful people who want to come work with us, and they take a look around Vancouver and they take a …