I got my first job at 16.
I walked into the Parks office in Revelstoke, impressed the office manager, got an interview and worked that summer and the next in Glacier Park. But in 1971, Canada Manpower (C.M.) took over and began vetting all applicants for federal government jobs. It was decided in Ottawa that all Glacier jobs were to be given to kids from Quebec. I literally couldn’t apply for my old job.
By the late ’70s, Vernon C.M. had 4,000 unemployed listed, and seven jobs came up that winter.
When you went in, a large man would pull your card and make thoughtful faces and noises while stroking his chin. No matter the job, with one list you were never the person most qualified. When I graduated, I refused a job there: I couldn’t bear being the person telling others that there was no work.
Now the B.C. Liberals have given a quarter of a million dollars (is there an election?) to draw up lists of the unemployed and jobs, and Greg Kyllo thinks it is a wonderful idea.
A question for Greg: Is Sicamous booming, having done the same thing?
Talk is cheap. Memo to applicants: You will never be first on that list. You are better off without it.
If the survey is completed (after the election) it will show three things: There are a lot more unemployed, especially first nations, than the governments claim. Many of the latter don’t have skills that employers want, and many employers won’t hire them even if they do.
The contract is going to a consulting company with no website and no apparent clients, owned by someone with a doctorate in Aboriginal drama (2011) from the University of New Brunswick. His Linkedin resume is pulled. I predict great things.
Richard Smiley
