Re: “Critical need for skilled workers on the Island,” Jan. 27.
The article by Kevin J. Clarke, CEO of Catalyst Paper, outlines the huge challenge that governments and employers face with skill shortages.
Both have anticipated this crisis, but not enough has been done to ensure that skills needs are met by our post-secondary institutions and apprenticeships. For decades, there has been a disconnect between employers, government and the education system that provides skill training.
The easy solution for governments and employers is the temporary foreign worker route, but this limits future opportunities in good industrial jobs for students, underemployed and unemployed Canadians. One would think that Clarke’s human-resources team and the employment-insurance system could identify some skilled paper-mill candidates in the 1.3 million unemployed across Canada. However, it could be that paper-mill skills are as rare as long-face coal miners, as HD Mining International apparently experienced.
The closure of the Elk Falls paper mill was a shocking reminder of the fragile state of the paper industry. We can only hope that the B.C. government and federal government will regroup, and assist in recruiting and training Canadians for these jobs, and the many that are predicted for the mining, oil and gas industry boom.
Phil Harrison
Comox
