Dix Presses for More Skills Training
Wednesday, March 14, 2012 @ 3:49 PM
Students Hamsah Hussain and Chris Prince chat with NDP leader Adrian Dix
Prince George, B.C. – For Provincial New Democrat leader Adrian Dix, the government of Christy Clark has it all wrong.
Speaking to students and members of the media today at the College of New Caledonia’s new Technology Centre, Dix called the BC Jobs Action plan a public relations exercise. He called on the Clark team to cancel the ads currently being run on radio and television and put that money towards skills training “The only Ministry which saw cuts in the budget, the only one, was Skills Training.”
Dix says people in the mining and forestry sectors are telling him there is a shortage of skilled labour now, and the situation is only going to get worse.
Dix pointed to the proposal being developed by Canfor and the BID Group , which would turn the idled Rustad sawmill into a skills training centre. The proponents say they are putting in abut $10 million dollars in property and construction costs, with the hope the Province will come up with another $10 million and agree to operate the facility. Dix says that is a positive move “It’s a real opportunity here. Instead of taking up those opportunities, the Government seems focused on peripheral issues and I think that’s very disappointing.”
He accuses the government of “selling out the future” by “cutting post secondary education at a time when we have a massive gap in terms of the skills we have and the skills we need.”
He says there are opportunities, and he stands by his plan to call for non refundable student grants and would pay for it by reinstating the minimum tax on the banks.
Comments
I see Dix and co. are still holding fast to their belief that money grows on trees. What a surprise they’re in for when they win the next election.
Dix – Use the existing facilities – CNC has lots of room to grow as do other Northern facilities. We do not need to pay for another lemon. Canfor and BID should be using that money for apprentices etc. Not as a tax write off for their properties etc….
Another one for the Liberals is the insane idea of flying welfare recipients to the north and train them.
Do you Southerners not get it? We have ample people up in the north to train first. I know trade students who have finished their first year programs and cannot find any company to hire them because they do not have “experience”.
How in the dickens do you think these southerners will do?
Give your head a shake government – oh, forgot there is nothing inside to shake except the monies in your pockets……..
We need trades, but that has to start in high school not post secondary.Our education system still tells kids to get a degree and a high paying job. The truth is get a trade and get a high paying job. We all have to do a better job of identifying the likely candidates for trades at an earlier age. Then we will have less people pissed of about student loans and no jobs to pay them back.
“Do you Southerners not get it? We have ample people up in the north to train first”
“How in the dickens do you think these southerners will do”
Ummm, Dix was talking to CNC students, LOL . . .
guesswhat we dont have near enough people up north to fill the jobs. I do agree with you on the welfare idea though. Most of the companies up here have held job fairs down south. and these same people weren’t capable of going out to them. If they had, the cost to relocate would be on the companies instead of the taxpayers. We better be prepared to fly them back south if we fly them up,or hitchhiking will be back in vogue!
Good for DIX. WE NEED MORE TADES TRAINING. period.
By the way guess what…..CNC does not have lots of room to grow. five years out this will be a catastrophe for the north if we don’t begin building that capacity now.
Dix is correct, regardless of Liberal trolling on this site.
Oh ya Dix talking to the ones to young to rememder what the NDP did to this province and jobs. lmao
Politics can be sad. While the politicians are saying not enough people, I see a lot that cant find jobs. If you tell the people that we are short manpower because of the robust economy, they will believe it and it will make the government of the day look good. One other thing, I bet Tim McQuen has been paid moving expenses by both jobs, the one he left, and the one he has taken. Since when do you pay someones moving cost when they quit. Twice what it would cost as well. I am a mover, I know about the cost.
Dix would put a minimum tax on banks ?? That must be the money tree people talk about all the time?
By the way guess what…..CNC does not “have lots of room to grow. five years out this will be a catastrophe for the north if we don’t begin building that capacity now.”
CNC has lots of room. Trades classes could go on all summer long but most of the classes sit empty from the end of June until September. The problem is money, there isn’t enough funding to put on more classes. Then the problem is students, companies need start indenturing apprentices but that costs money.
So another facility out at the Rustads site won’t help at all unless they get government funding to put on the classes.
But lets fill up CNC first. In order to do that CNC needs money. The rooms are already there.
guesswhat we dont have near enough people up north to fill the jobs. I do agree with you on the welfare idea though. Most of the companies up here have held job fairs down south. and these same people weren’t capable of going out to them. If they had, the cost to relocate would be on the companies instead of the taxpayers. We better be prepared to fly them back south if we fly them up,or hitchhiking will be back in vogue!
onemansthoughts!Of the people who can’t find jobs, how many are employable.
Joijji
fat finger issue. johnybelt I agree when the fibs are replaced who ever gets in will see how the province has been raped.
Found this item on one of the CBC blogs. Funny as hell and many unknown facts boutz crusty and the gang.
http://alexgtsakumis.com/
Keep up the good work Adrian. Just get rid of HST for us after we elect you.
mattyc wrote
Found this item on one of the CBC blogs. Funny as hell and many unknown facts boutz crusty and the gang.
My dad used to tell me,,believe nothing of what you hear, and only half of what you see,,or perhaps half of what you read.
CNC has surplus capacity only because a CNC credential is not as well respected as one from Kwantlen or Fraser Valley or BCIT. This is not an issue of the capacity of current colleges, it is that several trades programs are not available at all in the land beyond Hope. Stop whining and get on with preparing for the future. The north deserves equal opportunity.
Seamutt: “fat finger issue. johnybelt I agree when the fibs are replaced who ever gets in will see how the province has been raped. “
Yeah, it is a long standing tradition in this province for the current government to blame the last. I suspect the NDP will be no different in that regard.
I thought Dix, with his history (i.e. the Glen Clark fiasco) and extreme lefty views would give the Libs a chance. But it appears people are ready to see socialism at work!
NMG – “Ummm, Dix was talking to CNC students, LOL . . .”
Read what I wrote again NMG – I was talking about the gov. flying welfare people from the south up here.
I agree we do not have enough people up north to fill the government predicitions. What I am saying is start with the northern people first….This is a slap in the face for Burns Lake…for one.
I would rather have my tax dollars spent up north then waste it flying southeners back and forth.
Bring in what we do not have to compete with BCIT etc. Are they not shutting some programs down in Mackenzie, Terrace, Smithers etc? Heck, even CNC can’t make ends meet – tuition goes up again this year. So why would you start another trades centre?
Look after our own up north and give them a reason to stay up north. You want the doctors and nurses to stay up north – they got an incentive. Do it with trades.
CNC has a great program “CTC” for the high school students. Only problem is very few attain an apprenticeship locally and require to go out of province… so why the dickens would they stay in BC? I know because my son attended recently. Almost all of his class has been searching for their apprenticeships and can only find them outside of BC.
Service Canada/Provincial Government depts at all levels have been advised for years this shortage was coming. The stats and info has been out there for over 10 years and the provincial gov. did not do a damn thing about it and now we are to believe they care? The majority of the stats are from government…..Must be an election coming ……
What is so inherently special about people in the north compared to people in the east, west or south, that would qualify them for special treatment?
Oh and it’s not just the trades, every single group of workers/professions will be facing severe labour shortages in the years ahead. So why is a trade worker any more important than a dentist, an engineer, a loan officer at a bank, a truck driver or an HR specialist? Didn’t the ER at the Fort St. James hospital have to close the other day? Maybe we should fly people up from the LML to fill those staffing voids?
I agree about opening up more spaces, what will that accomplish when the problem isn’t going to be excess demand, it’s going to be a shortage of people to physically utilize the seats that are there? IMHO, it would make more sense to consolidate some PSI’s and fund them properly, as opposed to having them scattered all over the Province with none of them really having the funding they need to operate effectively.
When my wife graduated from nursing, she couldn’t go one Province over to find her first job, she had to leave the country. This isn’t a new trend. You do what you have to do. If you are lucky enough to get a job locally, that’s great. If you can’t, then you need to have a different plan. I don’t think this is a Prince George or BC problem, you hear the same comments everywhere you go.
The big problem I see with the governments plan is that those jobs aren’t really in high demand, otherwise they would all be filled. If an industry is screaming in a very vocal manner that they need thousands of workers to fill good paying jobs and yet people don’t come, what the heck does that say about the working environment they have to offer? It isn’t just about the big paycheque anymore . . .
Yet again another prominent politician makes a case (with his mutterings) that what is most urgently needed is a training facility for politicians of all ilks, federal. provincial and municipal!
Intensive courses to be given are:
Reality Therapy 101.
Foot in Mouth Disease Avoidance Techniques 101.
How To Keep Election Promises 101.
Spending people’s money as if it were
your own 101.
Respect for Democracy 101.
How to tame the urge to condemn every
word that comes out of the mouths of your
opponents 101.
Etc.
Jim13135:-“Dix would put a minimum tax on banks ?? That must be the money tree people talk about all the time?”
——————————————–
Actually, that’s one of the few things Dix has suggested that makes sense.
The Banks are the only segment of society that actually have the ability to ‘make’ money. All the rest of us can only ‘get’ money ~ we don’t ever ‘make’ it, (unless were counterfeiting).
The BC Liberals removed the Corporation Capital Tax previously levied on the Banks, which was a foolish move on their part.
It used to be that there had to be a Reserve Ratio between Bank loans and Bank deposits of around 10%. For every $ 1,000 of customer deposits brought into the Bank, that Bank could lend up to $ 10,000 in new credit (which it creates through a process of bookkeeping).
If a Bank wanted to increase its loans portfolio it had to attract and retain more customer deposits. Which it could only do by offering better service and/or a better interest rate on those deposits than other Banks did.
Mulroney eliminated the Reserve Ratio and allowed Banks to increase loans based on their ‘Capital’ instead. Capital which they can value at whatever they want, since they have the power to increase it by spending money into existence on their own account. (Did anyone ever hear of one Bank ever borrowing money from another Bank to build a new high rise head office building, or open another branch, or upgrade their computer systems, or for any of the other expenses of banking?)
So Dix has indeed offered a way for BC to tap into the ‘money tree’, in a way that the costs can’t be passed back onto us, and we’d be foolish not to take it.
LOL at Fatgirl. Trades credentials are trades credentials no matter where you go.
“
CNC has surplus capacity only because a CNC credential is not as well respected as one from Kwantlen or Fraser Valley or BCIT. This is not an issue of the capacity of current colleges, it is that several trades programs are not available at all in the land beyond Hope. Stop whining and get on with preparing for the future. The north deserves equal opportunity.”
Please list the important trades programs we don’t have beyond Hope? I don’t think they are adding â Practical Horticulture and â Appliance Servicing to the Rustad site plan.
“Almost all of his class has been searching for their apprenticeships and can only find them outside of BC.”
That’s the problem, phone up Canfor and ask how many apprentices they currently have. I’d be surprized if they had one from each trade.
“Dix says people in the mining and forestry “sectors are telling him there is a shortage of skilled labour now, and the situation is only going to get worse.”
Apprentices aren’t skilled until they become journeymen with a few years under there belt. So it’s already too late. They will have to import skilled workers and that they will do!
Canfor and Finning and almost every unionised shop don’t have many apprenticeships because it goes on seniority. 50 year old guys apply and the young guys don’t have a hope. That is a big reason you will see immigration for trades. Embrace it, it is the BC way!
Said it before and saying it again.Dix and the NDP have the easiest jobs in the world. Critize everything and tell nothing to anyone how you would do things unless there are truckloads of money involved. Oh wait there is truckloads of money available it called taxpayers. He has another good option when not voted in he can skip to the federal liberals. NDP,Liberals. How does that work?
Canfor and Finning and almost every unionised shop don’t have many apprenticeships because it goes on seniority. 50 year old guys apply and the young guys don’t have a hope. That is a big reason you will see immigration for trades. Embrace it, it is the BC way!
I donât know where this idea came from but it does not make sense. An apprentice is not part of the union agreement until the apprenticeship is complete. When its finished he may not even have a job unless there is a vacancy. And in most cases there is as he/she are a pool of labour requirements that the employer has planed for. The old guys already have jobs so why would they take a job from an apprentice or keep an apprentice from getting a job.
Is this Rusted plan a way for getting a few bucks for a property that has become surplus. If Canfor is so enthusiastic about apprenticeship training their plants should find room to train them there. An apprentice does not get all the training in a class room they are indentured in trades of their choice. There used to be pre-apprentice ship training in a classroom which was a ten month program.. In most cases their was a requirement before being indentured . After an apprentice was accepted into a program they only spent about six weeks per year in the class room the rest was on the job training. That is what an aprenticship program used to be what its like today who knows what the fiberals have done to it.
Cheers
I see everyone is slouching in their chairs ….. oncoming back problems … not good for trades people.
I got all my Training from the Company I worked for , started at 14 , never cost me a Penny, never been out of Work or collected UI-EI or whatever, we have a System that take Money from Students ending up with huge Loans and no Jobs at Times, just keep on going the same old Way, see how far this will get us.
Is Dixie gonna shovel the money off of the back of a truck too? He will think it, but he won’t say it.
Is Dix going to shovel money off the back of a truck?
Sure, why not? It’s not HIS money, it would be our money, at least WE would be responsible for paying the annual interest on it until forever and a day!
It’s just another way of making sure to get elected and re-elected: Bribe people with their own money – people fall for it all the time!
Are you talking about HST rebates? Oops that was a Liberal trick!
Apprentice tree choppers. Apprentice logging truck drivers. Apprentice log crane operators for loading trees onto ships to China. That’s it. No apprenticeships in China. Repeat. Back to cutting trees down. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Comments for this article are closed.