What a waste of money. Put it into road repair.

Have you noticed that we seek labour from all over instead of training in the local area? We train a few, but not enough to meet the need, and then when we need more we look throughout the world. It’s been like throughout the all of Canada for year’s .We’ve been looking at the world as a temporary source of labour for our requirements. And I guess that’s ok if we were a temporary country.

The objective is stated as: “…. aimed at attracting, and retaining skilled workers from the pool of immigrants in the lower mainland.”

The methodology is described as: “the new campaign will show family life, and business success”.

So, are we trying to attract people to start businesses here or move or expand existing lower mainland businesses to PG which, in turn, may require skilled workers?

Or maybe we are trying to show business success to show that the businesses which require skilled workers are not “fly by night” operations and those who come up will be assured of secure jobs for years into the future.

It seems to be a bit of an unclear message.

I am wondering why a simple, direct “head hunter” approach could not be used by those businesses who actually need the people and are willing to offer them a job, relocation costs, etc. That is the way it was done when I and many others I knew of were recruited some 40 years ago to come to PG from all over Canada and other parts of the world – ads in newspapers in the lower mainland and other regions, phone interviews, short list, offer to pay for flight to PG for an interview, or fly to central location outside of PG for interviews, offer of a job and relocation costs, etc.

There was no help from government or NGOs in those days. It got a heck of a lot of skilled people into PG and other towns in this part of the province. Why is that not working anymore? Do we really have a shortage? Do we really have successful businesses who cannot recruit with their own devices?

“Have you noticed that we seek labour from all over instead of training in the local area?”

Not so much. It depends entirely on what is meant by skilled workers. Let us see the list of companies who need them and let us see the list of required skills.

We have students entering both the Colleges and University in the north every year, and graduates in the many hundreds and even a thousand or more depending on what programs one includes.

So a valid question might be, how good is the match between those who graduate from short certificate and diploma programs to undergraduate and post graduate degree programs with the local labour market needs?

It might actually be relatively good. BUT, the urge to move to other locations with more preferred lifestyles and better offers and more opportunities to advance may cause grads to move to gain the actual practical experience they need to hone the skills they were taught. In some cases PG simply has too little to offer in the way of a full spectrum of experience. In other cases it has a lot more to offer than larger cities. It all really depends on the particular skills required.

Half your parents/grand parents were immigrants. If they offer skills and common goals adn truths to ours, let them in.

Gus touched on it, but some of you are missing one part of this story – “attracting, and retaining skilled workers from the pool of immigrants in the lower mainland”
These people are already “here” if you are worried about immigration to Canada…

More tax dollar handouts to business. If business needs employees, maybe they should try a new approach, like paying for it themselves!

Many young people are working 20 hours plus. If anyone is familiar with the funding system in this province they cannot get assistant to better themselves as 20 hours in considered full time. That leaves out any funding from the province/federal EI funding system.

I know many youth in PG that still have a dickens of a time attaining apprenticeships in the fields they trained in..they either give up or move out of the province. Work on the apprentice/red seal programs.

My son has an apprenticeship with a local company and will be paying for his own schooling yearly and he has no problem with that as we can afford it. What about the families that can’t? The company he works for will not assist him. He has had offers for employment outside of this province…and may be looking into his options down the road.

By the way, he turned down a couple of scholarships in order to try and help others who cannot afford to pay for their full schooling.

He is saving his own money for school this fall as he feels he does not want any handouts………..

If these companies are crying they cannot retain workers then cry me a river and start giving the workers an incentive to stay and quit treating people like cheap labour.

guesswhat … our family’s experiences support your comments

… maybe PG employers have been used to a labour surplus for so long, they now feel it is an employer’s right to have underpriced workers available at their beck and call … we watched over half of our family member’s graduating CTC class leave PG for apprenticeships at the coast and Alberta .. (including our guy) .. this program sounds like another effort to get naive workers to move to PG .. employers need to buck up and commit to a reasonable number of year round apprenticeships if they want to develop a sustainable work force

PS guesswhat .. good on your son, he sounds like a socially responsible young man

We too have a similar story to guesswhat and anotherside. Family member got into trades program at CNC, but couldn’t secure an apprenticeship here. Left the province, but once he had his red seal, they sure want him in PG. However he would make about $40,000 less here. So, he works in Northern BC and Alberta, and we live here. We are not the only ones. If PG businesses want skilled labour, they need to be willing to give out apprenticeships, and pay more.

In order to retain skilled “immigrants” most of whom are well educated people, a city or community must have certain services available in order for the family to decided this is a good place to settle down and raise our children. A safe environment (low crime rate) good healthcare, schools, reliable bus service, affordable housing, a broad spectrum of retail, restaurants, recreation, entertainment. This would also require cultural and artistic events and opportunities, which are still considered a waste of money by many locals.
The employer can offer all the financial incentives they want, but families will not stay, if their other needs are not met. Prince George has come a long way since I immigrated in the late 1960, but to entice people away from the lower mainland and settle in the interior or the northern region will continue to be a challenge.
Any group that takes on this task should be supported.

But why can’t Prince George and northern businesses use the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP)? …. just kidding!