IPG In Ireland to Recruit Skilled Labour
Friday, October 5, 2012 @ 3:54 AM
Prince George, B.C.- Representatives of the B.C. Provincial Nominee Program are in Ireland this week, looking to attract skilled Irish workers to B.C.
While the Provincial Nominee Program is the lead on this trip, a representative from Initiatives Prince George and three local companies,(Canfor, Stinger Welding and Northern Crane) formed part of the delegation.
The delegation has already attended the Jobs Expo in Dublin, a recruitment event in Cork, and will wrap up the trip at the Working Abroad expo in Dublin. According to IPG CEO Heather Oland, the junket has already had some positive results " I understand there have been some interviews done on the spot, and some hiring done."
Oland says Ireland is a key market to find suitable skilled workers to fill the employment needs of Northern B.C. companies "The trades training is similar in Ireland and the transition to Canadian regulations is relatively easy. There are also historical and cultural ties with Ireland that make this an easy transition for skilled people."
B.C. Provincial Nominee Program made an exploratory trip to Ireland in March of this year, and noted thee was a high level of interest as well as a significant number of highly skilled people in the areas of skilled trades, construction and tourism, skills that are needed in the B.C. labour market.
Oland says IPG has heard loud and clear from companies throughout the region that the single largest obstacle to their being able to take full advantage of the opportunities presented by the growth in natural resource development is the lack of skilled labour. She says finding those people to come to Prince George will not only help local and regional companies, but assist in growing the population base in Prince George.
Oland says IPG will be attending job fairs in other parts of Canada with an eye to recruiting more folks to move to this region to take advantage of the employment opportunities. She says there are plans for IPG to be part of a job fair in Winnipeg and in Toronto.
Comments
How about you offer good money to the folks you already have here in Canada? Or..better yet…promote the trades better to younger workers just entering the employment market. Employment rates aren’t THAT low are they?
It is cheaper for Canfor to hire a tradesman from overseas than to train an apprentice from PG. The pulpmills did this back in the day when hey were starting up and all we ended up with were a bunch of Newfies and those dreaded Scotsmen!
So the taxpayer of PG is now subsidizing the recruitment of employees for Canfor and other companies. Just one more reason IPG should bite the dust.
That has got to be the first time I have ever heard Newfoundland referred to as “overseas”.
Vancouver Island is overseas as well ….. ;-)
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So is IPG being funded by the Province to pay for this? Or are our property taxes paying for this?
It is not the job of IPG to recruit …. that is the job of companies and, since the Province has gotten into the Jobs, Jobs, Jobs mode, as well as the Feds, it is their job.
Our job is to attract businesses ad companies who will then have to recruite … we can give them all sorts of stats, pretty poictures and movies ….
As far as I am concerned, this is downloading monies collected through provincial and federal taxes to property taxes …..
PLEASE someone give us the rationale for why this is the way it seems to be structured.
Again, we are left in the dark!!!! Absolutely no transparancy!!!!
LOL..yes it is. One would cross the Salish Sea to get to Vancouver Island.
“skilled trades, construction and tourism”
I also didn’t realize that tourism is a highly skilled trade!
So how many workers need to be recruited to make the cost of the trip worthwhile? Or does that not factor into the equation?
Lets see, Canfor closed how many mills over the years, putting how many people out of work, not to mention NCP, and now they have to go to Ireland to recruit workers? What kind of jobs are these that there doesn’t seem to be British Columbians qualified for? And a welding company can’t find enough welders here in BC? Are you serious. This is nothing more than a systematic dismantling of our future workforce. I really have to wonder what is the reason for these changes we have seen over the past couple of years. First the change to the temporary labour bill and now taxpayers funding recruiting junkets to put those same taxpayers at a disadvantage. Things are seriously broke. SHTF will be sooner than people think.
I agree that recruitment is not something that IPG should be doing. If memory serves there is a member on the board named Mark Feldinger…..I wonder what he does in his day job?
I suppose that once Shari is appointed to the board we will have a smelly candle summit with our sister city in China:)
What a shame the College puts through hundreds of welders that just need hours, Saw mills crying for trades but they all still want to take the short root with our money and look for skilled labour out side the county. Have a real problem with this when you still have high unemployment. Train and support local people what the hell.
Sharis hubby works for Canfor! hmmmmm!
A few years ago I went to Nelson to get training as a machinist. Well, they had just laid off eight machinists from Trail so I was told Manpower wouldn’t train any more. I asked them about the market four years from then, when I would be trained and available. They told me that they couldn’t say what it would be. Even I had figured out that the trades run in three and four year cycles. There’s a glut and then four years later there’s a shortage. Been this way for how many years and they can’t figure it out???
Nice to see our tax payers are hard at work….
Denaljo wrote:
“Sharis hubby works for Canfor! hmmmmm!”
How lame…..
Your beloved Brian Skakun works there too……Its a conspiracy.
Brian Skakun loves Fluoride!
Paid holiday to Ireland is all this trip will accomplish. All the relevent points regarding jobs, local skilled people etc. have been made in the comments above, and they’re all true.
metalman.
IPG sure has a swell website. No rose coloured glasses needed, too.
“IPG sure has a swell website”
Nice graphics, little substance ….
Christy Clark was on the radio this week offering up $650 million to four lane the highway from Kamloops to Banff… I thought that was a federal highway, so shouldn’t the feds be paying for that?
Now we have city taxes going to do provincial and corporate work of recruiting employees and making a holiday out of it all.
Clearly we have politicians that don’t understand who they represent and have no problem funding the role of other jurisdictions miss-allocating their tax revenues.
Personally I’d like to see the mayor axe IPG and fold business services into city hall, then do the work of mayor and axe the core review and the new assistant and the high priced city manager… and the problem with funding for our roads and other civic infrastructure could be solved without having to sell parks and swimming pools to real estate campaign donors.
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